Hoenn Epic
by Spelonberry
Summary: Brendan and May are two Hoenn trainers aiming for League Champion-nothing more, until they're caught up in a criminal gang messing with undercover projects. When ancient, legendary Pokemon enter the equation, the League must step in - and take the aid of a mysterious syndicate, Magma. As the rising conflict triggers a response from the Mainland, Hoenn will never be the same.
1. Prologue: Flash Forward

Blurry white came into focus above him, forming the clean lines of a hospital room.

He blinked and heaved a few breaths, lying there for an indeterminate time before he took stock of his situation.

There was an IV in his arm; both of his arms were layered in gauze, and his chest was covered in bandages. That was kind of funny to him because he didn't feel a thing-just a kind of swimming, drugged throb. It was ugly, though, under them. He would need a skin graft. Probably. Everything had burnt off.

The air felt strange, smells of chemicals he'd never smelled before in his life in Hoenn. He had the feeling he'd never been here before. It was his first clue something big had happened, something bigger than legendary pokemon and pokénergy viruses. There were oval windows in the curved sides of the room.

White. Suddenly the room was burning in white flame behind his eyelids. Fire was a monster, tearing the iconic steel hall down, dragging blazing claws through everything he stood for, until the metal wept in great, searing tears. Spars of shock nailed him to the floor. The man facing him held a look of triumph in his eyes; his eyes blazed, twisted red by the flame tips stretching to the 30-foot ceiling.

_"You had your chance_," the man said and-

-he gasped. Back in the strange hospital. A nurse at his side. She left after busying about for awhile.

He had no will to summon up the energy to think, or care, about anything.

Out of habit, he twisted the two prismatic rings of metal and precious stones on his fingers.

Eventually, he forsook the unfamiliarity of the small sterile room for the continuity of unconsciousness.

...

**_Long before..._**


	2. They're the Good Guys

** Warning: contains shipping Heheheheh ok: hotgingermessshipping all the way.** Contains all yo fav Hoenn cities**. And Brendan does _NOT_ have white hair. **Contains Maxie**. ALL HAIL RAYQUAZA!**

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"The Mainland spends good money on quality of life. But not law enforcement. The rangers have become a joke recently; they seem to prefer hanging out than keeping a lookout for crime." The man in muted red laughed a little, leaning forward on the smooth polished metal table, on the other side of which sat the Hoenn champion.

The Champion's back room was large and dim and shades of metal greys. The speaking voices of the two men echoed up to the tall, peaked ceiling. Marble countertop and tall silver faucets glimmered along the back wall, along with rows glass bottles. But the man in red wasn't here for entertainment.

"There has never been much crime for the rangers to put a stop to," commented the Champion.

"When will they catch up with Aqua then? Are the rangers adequate?" the man on the other side half-scoffed.

"Their experience is limited," the Champion deferred. "But Aqua is a shadowy, vague organization so far. Amateur trainers have challenged them, fended them off."

"And you're willing to let random individuals try and stop a criminal organization?"

"We don't even know if they're criminal, or organized. They could be just troublemakers."

The champion's guest fidgeted with the sleeves of his red hoodie. He was fairly built. "But you know that's not the truth. I'm told that Devon does a good job of keeping up appearances when it's undergoing serious trauma on the inside."

The chair squeaked as the Champion leaned back. He privately wondered what kind of connection this man had. "Why don't you tell me why you're the better alternative?"

"It's not just me. I'm just one of the group's admins. We're interested in tracking down Aqua for the sake of preventing any trouble they might cause."

"And your group is...?"

"Magma. Our leader is named Maxie; he prefers keeping busy behind the scenes."

"Hm." The Champion was 23, hair spiked with class, an almost silver dye job. It was rote in Hoenn for pokemon trainers to get their hair dyed. "So spit it out. What do you want from me?"

The admin smiled, crossing his arms. "Nothing, except your opinion. We don't want to cause more trouble than Aqua will make."

"Well, I assume you are acquainted with a Devon worker to know things as you've hinted at. As you can guess, some sensitive matters are at stake. But as long as you keep your relationship with Devon distant, and allow your actions to be transparent, I approve. The rangers have long needed some kind of improvement." The Champion stood.

"We have no direct interest in Devon, only Aqua," stated the Magma admin, standing as well. "Thank you for your time, Champion Stone."

"I have lots of it nowadays," he said, cracking a smile, escorting his guest out.

Then he called his father, the Devon president, and let him know there was a force on the lookout for Aqua. No need to worry; their covert plans could go ahead as designed.


	3. May and Brendan

The grass on route 119 was four feet high. And there were fields and mazes of it. You'd think there would be a straight path through; instead, rangers were posted to keep watch for people looking to start a secret berry farm.

May was muddy as she dragged her Mach bike through the grass, the wheels snarled with greenery like a push mower's blades. She'd been going through this grass for almost a half hour, and it was raining, and there was some sort of mimic club following her. She could hear them talking secretively, a few feet behind her.

"Ooh! Ooh! A step forward!"

The grass behind her rustled as the club stepped forward.

"Isn't there someone else to mimic?!" May yelled back at them furiously, swiping a surskit off her shoulder in disgust, yanking the bike along a couple more steps. At first she'd carried it above her head but grew tired quickly. She had a flying pokemon, but flying was illegal until you got licensed by the gym in Fortree, where she was heading now.

"Haha! You're an easy one to follow! We're teaching our beginner class today!" called someone behind her.

"I think she took three steps forward and a step right!"

"Good job Tommy, let's all follow suit!"

The grass rustled.

"NYAAAARG!" May yelled into the spitting sky. Maybe if Brendan hadn't jilted her back at Mauville this wouldn't be such a trial. Brendan and May had started their experience periods at the same time. If you chose trainer's school, after you finished grade nine you got a trainer's card and were allowed two years of experience. But Brendan was always running off to wherever he thought was next. They'd made it Rustoboro together, but when asked to deliver some goods and a letter for Devon corporation, Brendan decided they could each take one thing.

After May had delivered her letter, she'd called Brendan to see where he wanted to meet up, but he was busy on this route to this other city and this other gym. They'd bumped into each other again around Rusturf tunnel, where May was clearing some rocks for family of a sick school friend. Brendan pitched in, as he was also acquainted. Despite that, Brendan ran off to Flannery's gym without further ado. May trailed him, training. Things went like that until May lost track of where he was and got to gym five before him.

Nonetheless, he'd shown up mid-battle, getting mad at her because apparently it was his dad's gym and therefore he should get to fight him first!

Even slogging through the grass now, almost two weeks later, it made May angry.

Brendan had made a bad attempt at apologizing, after talking with his dad, and suggested they go somewhere together, but they didn't agree and set off separately again.

May hadn't called him since then and didn't know where he was. She tried not to care. But he could've been useful here.

"One step forward, class!"

May's bike stuck in the grass and she jerked it, swearing mentally. It gave suddenly and landed her on her back, and a wild linoone scrambled over the bike and began poking at the tires with its sharp claws.

"Noooo!" May howled. "That's it!"

She sent out Etz, her sceptile. The peak of his head was a couple inches above hers. "Etz, body slam him!"

The sceptile gave the linoone a hefty tackle and it went yowling back in the bushes.

Scattered applause sounded from the grass behind her.

"Etz, can you carry my bike?" May said tiredly.

"Ep, ep," it croaked. May pointed to her bike. Etz looked at it then prepared a ball of energy for a mega drain.

"No, no," sighed May, recalling it.

She ploughed on, the mimics behind her.

…..

It was moderately warm several miles west. Brendan was making his way rather blithely through the desert on route 111. The area was held within a rocky perimeter, as per Mainland development code. During the geographic planning stage of initiating a new region, the Mainland made sure there would be plenty of different habitats for pokemon of that region to live in, while making space for humans. The desert was engineered out of natural materials, but the sandstorm was kept up by an air system in the rocky borders.

Once Brendan had found some Go-Goggles, he'd started out into the desert right away. There were a few rangers keeping watch there and several trainers who appeared as if they were permanent residents.

Twenty minutes down the path a girl in a green hat was trying to lay down a checkered blanket just off the graveled road. Brendan stopped by her curiously.

"Are you picnicking in the middle of a sandstorm?" Brendan himself was already pretty dusty; his white hat was an even brown shade. The swirling sand particles stung his cheeks, put some life in them.

"Oh! Yes! What better place to picnic?" said the girl, jumping up, then making a dive for her picnic blanket as the sandstorm whirled it away. Her open picnic basket fell over and Brendan bent to pick up the BLT buns that rolled out.

"Thanks," twittered the girl as her picnic station was restored. "Wanna battle?"

"Sure," Brendan shrugged, reaching in his bag for a pokeball.

"Goooo Toybal!" shouted the girl, who must've been a year or two younger, on her experience period too.

Brendan snorted at the nickname and silently sent out his swampert. "You go first," he offered, to at least get him a laugh out of this.

"OK! Toybal, use...um..." The picnicker looked lost.

"Don't tell me you just caught that now," Brendan said.

"Pfft, well what if I did? Do you know any of its moves?"

"Self destruct?" Brendan said nonchalantly.

"OK! Toybal, use self destruct - hey wait a second, won't that-"

The weird pokemon blew its own lights out with a burst of energy. Brendan's swampert politely dodged the attack as the baltoy fainted.

"Ooh! You rotten trainer! Here's your money! Excuse me while I picnic!" The girl recalled her pokemon, tossed money at Brendan (who managed to catch it in the wind) and flounced back down on her blanket.

"Thanks," Brendan said, more to himself. He recalled his swampert and continued on his way, munching on a BLT sandwich he'd quickly jammed in his pocket. Sand got in his mouth with each bite, so he gulped it down quickly. He was enjoying his experience period. The only thing he was concerned about was this team Aqua that he'd battled a few times; but it seemed like the trouble they caused was small enough for a decent trainer to fix, despite the huge alert out for them now, and how concerned Devon corporation seemed to be.

Devon had actually asked Brendan to carry goods for them after he'd saved one of their employees from Aqua a month ago. May had been there too, then, and she'd delivered a letter for them, wherever she was now.

Actually, Brendan kind of hoped to run into team Aqua again. No one had seen them since a few weeks ago, when they'd tried to steal submarine parts in Slateport.


	4. First Clash

The large, modern-looking facility May had spotted from overtop the grass was no Pokemon center.

It was 6:00 p.m., and May was tired. The rain had let up momentarily but the sky was still spitting. May had gotten rid of the mimics by humiliating the teacher in a battle with her makuhita.

Now she was out of the grass. She cautiously entered the five-story, schoolish facility. "The Weather Institute" said the 3D silver letters above the empty reception desk. To May's right was a large room of cubicles; empty as well, computers and desks abandoned. Odd. May silently released Etz and shushed its croaking. It followed her back outside as May walked around the building, seeing if there was anything amiss outside. She rounded the eastern side and quickly ducked back behind the rough white wall of the building.

The Weather Institute was near a river, and guarding the log bridge across were two outfitted Aqua members, arms crossed and conversing. The rush of the river made it impossible to hear what they were saying.

May's good guess was Aqua was doing something fishy in the Institute. She probably could defeat the two thugs guarding the bridge, but. . . Didn't look like any ranger was around to help with any trouble the reformist group might be causing inside.

Anyways, the ranger May had battled a little earlier had been pretty weak. So May went inside and made her way under the fluorescents through the cubicles. She climbed the thinly carpeted stairs up three floors, all deserted. Voices echoed from floor four as she climbed up to the next level, peeking through the window in the door at the top of the staircase.

A burly Aqua backed by five other Aquas had cornered a man in glasses and a lab coat. This floor was the lab floor; it had warning signs and glass chambers and equipment in it. The Aqua grunts were keeping an eye on the other Institute researchers along a side wall. May thought she recognized one of the Aquas from way back in Petalburg woods.

Whatever the big guy in a bandana and rap industry type beard was saying to the lab coat, it was sure threatening by his expression.

May opened the door and the main Aqua looked up at her. She quailed a bit at the intensity of his stare but managed,

"Excuse me, but what are you doing?"

Everyone looked at her.

"Yo, we're in the middle of getting ourselves a pokemon," growled the Aqua guy. There was a kind of nasal resonance to his voice. He was about May's height - kinda short, but ripped, she noticed as he pushed aside the lab coat man. Etz peeked in from behind May. "So you should get lost," the buff guy finished shortly.

"I'd prefer you do that," May said, doing her best to stare back at him. Etz stepped out beside her.

"Archie, that's one of the kids who intervened with the letter grab," said the Aqua who May thought she knew.

"Mmm," Archie, the main man, said with a bit of delight, as he noticed the sceptile. "Let me battle you off then. Go, my mightyena!"

"Etz!" May managed as Archie released the wolfish pokemon rather viciously and it gave a roar. "Etz, leaf blade!" she commanded.

"Scep," it croaked, shooting a sharp-edged arrow of green energy from its arms, which hit the prancing mightyena squarely. May hmphed, eyeing Archie. His silk black shirt and chain necklace were quite overdoing the posh rapper look.

"Crunch!" Archie yelled at his mightyena. It snapped its jaws, blasting two pinching waves of darkness at Etz.

Etz managed to knock out Archie's first pokemon. The Aqua leader whipped out a golbat with no word. It quickly took Etz out with a wing attack.

"Alright," May glanced at the onlookers, "Go, my wingull!"

"Ha!" chortled Archie. "Crunch it!"

The crunch nearly took the wingull out - May's status sensor started beeping an alarm - but she had a little something up her sleeve.

"Shock wave," she commanded. The near-fainted wingull mustered a bolt of electric-type energy above the golbat and nailed the flying type.

"Got anything else?" May asked, recalling her bird, not noticing that it was beginning to transduct before the pokeball sucked it in; it was evolving.

"Is there water suspension in here?" Archie asked the lab coat, turning around. All the researchers shook their heads. Archie turned back to May. "Yo, looks like this'll stay unfinished-" _More like I win_, May thought- "-but Shelley and the others can easily pound you!"

A girl wearing some nice blue jeans with some wicked, blown out, curly red hair motioned all the other Aquas forward. Archie grabbed the lab coat guy and started demanding something from him again. A chorus of "go!"s from the Aquas followed and May backed up against the staircase door as golbats, crawdaunts and an odd cacturne materialized, ready to fight.

"Whoa! Five on one is NOT legal without consent-"

"Crawdaunt, water pulse!"

"Golly, aerial ace!" Aquas shouted. The attacks washed innocuously over May. Most attacks were energy, incapable of affecting humans. Some stronger attacks did convert from attack energy to physical energy back to attack energy, like surf and flamethrower, but they were more rare. "I'd hate to hurt a kid who won't battle!" the redhead said with a sharp grin.

May's mind raced - she only had two other pokemon that weren't strong enough.

"Look, just-" she started.

"Crawdaunt, surf!" ordered an Aqua.

"Craaaaaa," grated the pokemon, releasing a smooth wall of energy that seemed to be rushing in slow motion toward May, turning into a real wave of real water -

Suddenly the door behind her was flung open, knocking her aside, and a screen of energy she recognized as the attack protect turned the water into harmless energy again.

Figures in charcoal and red entered the room.

"You should leave," said one of the new people. May scrambled back against a file cabinet and opened her Nav to submit a ranger alert.

"Why? Who are you all?" Shelley stepped back, along with all the Aquas.

"We're here to make you leave," said the man in front, in a red hoodie. "Hoenn, preferably."

"Like that'll happen," said Archie, moving to the front of his gang. "You the leader?" he asked the man.

"Nope, but as good as him." The Magma grinned. He and his six companions simultaneously released formidable pokemon: camerupts, machokes, golbats. The Aqua's pokemon bristled. "We have the Pokemon League's approval to kick your arses."

"That don't mean a thing," Archie spit.

A very loud and confusing seven-on-five battle commenced.

Pokemon called; energy hissed and foomed; Archie, the only one without useable pokemon, yelled insults at the Magma guy.

Although water types had the advantage and thoroughly soaked many people in the room trying to prove it, the Magmas won out in the end.

In a roaring stampede, the battling factions chased each other out. May covered her head and slowly let her guard down as the noise faded. She looked up to see the lab coat man, wet now, offering her a hand. She took it out of politeness and stood up, looking out the window. The Aquas were fleeing just as rangers were arriving. The Magmas dispersed another way, leaving a Magma in a long leather skirt to talk to the rangers.

"I better go and explain things," May told the lab coat man. The other researchers were trying to put the room back in order.

"I should too as well," said the man.

Thankfully, things got straightened out. Apparently, the Aquas had wanted a weather-changing pokemon, a castform, from the Institute. Both May and the Magma, Courtney, were thanked profusely. May stayed a little while to talk with Courtney, who explained what Magma was and why they didn't want to attract public attention. "Things just get blown out of proportion," she'd said.

"Well, I'm glad there's someone out there tracking Aqua," May had said.

"Yes, yes," Courtney had agreed with a smile. "We'll find out where they're going next."

Thankfully, the rangers gave the Magmas the go-ahead, with a request that Magma tell them if something came up.

They were probably too busy being defeated by teenagers to stop crime.


	5. At Fortree

**Author's Note. For those of you who have made it this far, please drop me a review. I'd like to know what you think of it.**

**It is a bit slow going, as I started this story at the end of the beginning and now have to start at the beginning of the beginning. Hold on! I enjoy worldbuilding so I hope you do too. I promise you an overdose of adrenaline in later chapters.**

**And last, shipping. I'm still working on that one. It's taking way too long to get to my favorite characters:(**

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May made it to Fortree, a town of about 3,000, pretty exhausted.  
She handed over her pokeballs to the nurse at the Pokemon center and headed back to the showers, scanning her trainer card. Another standard Mainland implement: every trainer card was awarded a standard amount of credits every month which could be used for showers and overnight stays at Pokemon centers, contest entry, and gym challenges. Showers were pretty cheap; other items were more costly.

Of course, to prevent abuse of the system, a trainer card would deactivate when no gym challenge or contest entry was made for three weeks. After you beat the League, got a job as a gym leader, or, most commonly, your experience period was up, the card became a memento of your journey.

The tile floor was yellow and orange and the lights were warm as May headed to the women's side. There were two shower stalls here. In Mauville's center, there were eight. Fortree was pretty much just a stopping point, albeit with a gym, on the way to Lilycove.

May showered and headed back to the front, her hair still damp and tied in a ponytail.

"We've restored your Pokemon to full health," smiled the nurse, handing May back her pokeballs.

"Thanks," May said, looking outside. It was raining still. She glanced across the room from the medical area where a few orange tables were set up next to a coffee-shop style bar; friends sat and talked among themselves. May sighed. She decided she'd explore the city, scope out the gym, and spend some of her credits sleeping indoors tonight.

Her Nav rang just as she was about to leave; it was her dad, Professor Birch as most knew him. Despite being pretty scatterbrained, his study of pokemon habitats had aided the Mainland in their various development projects over the years.

"Hey May, it's Dad," his tenor voice came through.

"Hi!" May said, happy to talk to someone. She'd been roughing it without Brendan for a couple weeks.

"Sorry I haven't called you, I've been at my route 102 station for a while! Anyhoo, how's the badge collection?"

May leaned on the windowsill. "Pretty good. I got the Balance Badge from Ld. Norman in Petalburg."

"Oh, Brendan's dad?"

"Apparently yes! I didn't know till Brendan got there halfway through our battle, and . . ." May spilled the whole story, ending with their parting, once again.

"Well, can't say I'm surprised! When I did a bit of work in Johto and met Norman, he seemed like the loner too."

"Hm, well Brendan's managed to be pigheaded as well as a loner," May said.

"So where are you now?" her dad asked.

"Fortree," May said, grinning.

"Really? You make good time from Petalburg! So it's Winona next?"

"Yep, maybe tomorrow."

"Be careful, sweetie. She's tough, tougher than you expect. You can get through her first two easy enough, but Norman mentioned when we last talked that she has an altaria! Apparently those things are killer."

"Well, I plan to use my pelipper and my kirlia... Thing is, my sceptile won't be of use and neither will my makuhita," May sighed.

"Whatever you say. Just don't hurt yourself," Professor Birch said.

May asked about his fieldwork and they talked for a good 20 minutes before hanging up.  
May also had a mom. Somewhere in Johto. One time her parents had gone there for her dad to do research and only the professor had come back.

May went outside. The sunset was a light orange visible overtop the rows of tall eciduas, which grew up to 60 feet tall. Eciduas were thick-trunked trees with flat, needle-like leaves, and branches that tended to grow almost parallel to the ground-perfect for constructing housing in.

May surveyed the nearly all-wood houses nested in the trees. There were people walking in the shade; the eciduas blocked out most of the drizzle. Pathways and ladders were lined with electric lanterns; only here and there could you see the gleam of a slightly rusted steel support holding the magnificent yet humble dwellings up. It was half forest, half city. May wandered down narrow and well-traveled, twisting paths, her gaze fixed up. Even at 9:10 pm, neighbours still gathered on elevated porches and couples strolled along the most romantic lighted paths.

The gym was built to look like every other gym and looked a little out of place. The eciduas growing over it had been trained to form a leafy dome, shadowing it in the same cool light as all else. It was closed for the night.

May returned to the Pokemon center, got a room, and slept.


	6. An Old Friend

The next day found Brendan spitting ash out of his mouth, blowing it out of his nose, and wiping it out of his eyes. Moreover, he could hardly see what way to go- the air was filled with floating ash. Every step he took flung up more ash, off the knee-high grass, into the air. He could tell where he'd walked by the green of the blades of grass showing through, but he didn't know where he was headed.

"Daaaaammit," he moaned to himself as a demented looking pokemon rustled out of the grass in front of him.

"Spiiindaaaaa!" it howled insanely, spinning in circles, releasing a confusion attack into the grass.

"Go - phhtt crap-" Brendan spit more ash out of his mouth - "my swampert!"

"Maaar!" roared the blue-skinned pokemon, smacking its eel-like tail fins together. Although it walked on four stocky legs much like an ape, it was equipped to be a good swimmer as well. Without a command from its trainer, it used muddy water, an attack like surf. It began as a misty wave of energy and turned into real muddy water before blasting into the spinda as energy again. The spinda fainted. Brendan recalled his pokemon and kicked on through the fluffy ash. Once when he was younger he'd stayed around to watch what happened to a wild pokemon after it fainted; it regained energy shortly after, sometimes from another of its species, and ran back to its habitat to eat. That had been back when his dad wasn't a gym leader; he'd worked in the Johto region, corresponding with researchers like Professor Birch, studying pokemon habitats. But battling had always been Norman's real fascination and whatever pokemon or area he was working in, he was always looking for strong pokemon and ways to make them strong.

Then one day when Norman took his son out into the field with him, that had all come to an abrupt end, a sudden end -

Brendan realized he'd stopped walking and jolted back into action again.

He met two little girls probably still in trainer's school down the road, if you could call the occasionally rocky borders which prevented escape from the ash a road.

They were giggling, playing with two marill. Brendan rolled his eyes as he walked past, but the girls jumped at him and demanded a battle.

"Look, leave me alone and just play with your little pokemon, cause-" he started, backing away.

"NO! OUR POKEMON AREN'T LITTLE!" one of the girls said.

"YEAH! Show him with a rollout, Rilly!" the other girl commanded the marill that was apparently hers. The small round pokemon flung blasts of energy at Brendan.

"Whoa," he said, the attack knocking him back. Wait, he thought as he righted himself. _Did that attack just... affect me?_ A brief sensation of weakness confused him for a moment. _Rollout's not, what do you call it ... One of those attacks that converts into physical energy ... Forgetting trainer's school already. . ._

"Whatever," he said under his breath, and released his trapinch and swampert. "Swampert, body slam!" he ordered it. The attack more than took out one of the marill. He could've finished it right away by choosing muddy water, but the trapinch could use a little experience. He got trapinch to use dig.

"NO FAIR!" screeched the fainted marill's owner.

"Tackle!" the other girl ordered her marill.

Brendan snorted at the little damage it did to his swampert. "Trapinch, finish the dig! And my swampert, body slam if you need to!"

The last marill went down and the girls went into a little fit about fairness and Brendan had to interrupt as they excessively over-dramatized a replay of the battle.

Finally he walked away with a chintzy prize of €250, recalling his trapinch and swampert. His status clip said trapinch had gained two levels. Where it had been blank before, the clip displayed an indecipherable block of pixels for "Status". Brendan didn't give it a second look. Ever since back in Johto his pokemon team had tossed around the pokerus. It was an innocuous and pretty rare virus most pokemon care professionals knew about, and would tell you not to worry about. Brendan didn't know why it had stayed around so long in his team, but he didn't mind. He actually thought he noticed his pokemon grow a lot more when they went through the 4-dayish phase of having the virus. If his dad were still in the scientific field, it would've been cool to do a project on it together... But it was, and probably would only ever be, Brendan and his guessing. No more time to do fun stuff with Norman working long days at the gym and traveling to Verdanturf with Mom on the weekends for therapy.

Brendan figured his trapinch probably contracted the pokerus from his swampert just now. Not that it would evolve sooner, but it would probably be stronger when it did.

He continued kicking through the ash and soot. He took off his black half-frame glasses too. Wiping them on his shirt every few minutes was only making them more smudged.

Some 30 minutes west, the ash was starting to let up. Looking southwest by squinting out just his left eye, he could make out the outline of the volcano, and the crags around it, that was expelling the soot. His 1.50 prescription was just in his right eye; an injury.

There hadn't been any other trainers so far... just a slew of spindas ...

But unavoidably between him and the smoky outline of Fallarbor coming up in the distance was a kid with a blue hat, wandering around in the grass.

"Hey!" the guy said, noticing Brendan.

"Battle? Eh..." Brendan said, trailing off as he thought suddenly, I know this kid, reaching a hand in his jacket pocket for his glasses.

A look of squinted confusion and then the light of recognition crossed the chubby kid's face.

"Oh hey, Brendan! I know you from - lemme see, lemme see - intramurals! The Petalburg school and the Rustoboro school!"

"Yeah...Dillon," Brendan remembered, pushing his glasses up on his nose, "You were in the last three quarters in the battle tier!" Even though they'd competed against each other, they'd gotten to know each other pretty well through the interconnected schools, geographically close as they were.

"Yeah, yeah, good times, so how's the XP period?" Dillon asked, kicking clouds of soot up. "D'y'know, only fifteenish from Rustoboro in the program graduated, and there were only 'bout twenty to start?"

"Oh. Yeah, there were only like six from Petalburg, everyone's going into safer scientific fields instead of-"

"So you're gonna challenge the league, huh? How many badges you got?" Dillon interrupted.

"Eh, got four."

"Hoho! Well that's fine! Me too!" Dillon seemed to be lost in reminiscing for a moment, hands in pockets.

"So let's see if you deserve those badges," Brendan started.

"Remember when it was that jerk from Mauville come to try and beat you then me, in the last quarterfinal?" Dillon went on, unperturbed. "The guy who got expelled for that trick he pulled with the two pokemon in the sandstorm -"

"Yeah, I remember," Brendan cut him off, then cracked a smile as he actually did remember. "And then in the year after, when you beat me by fluke-"

"That was NOT a fluke," Dillon waved his hands about in objection.

"- and that Wally almost beat you-"

"He didn't almost beat me, I right out was beating him!"

"- but he had some respiratory attack and had to drop?"

"Yeah, I remember! And as I do, I say I won two of those quarters and you won one. Now, we should battle."

Brendan grinned back at Dillon. Dillon still sounded like a kid, he was still who he'd been last year.

But Brendan had grown.

"Go, my weezing!" Dillon said, releasing the poison pokemon.

Brendan didn't have a psychic pokemon, but his swampert could use some showing-off time. He actually didn't use her that much so as to train his other pokemon. Best use this chance to train the trapinch.

"Trapinch, go," he said. The little starry-eyed orange pokemon gave a weird little call.

"Haha! Well that's a little underwhelming there! Sludge bomb, Weezer!"

The weezing fired a blob of purple sludge at its opponent. The transenergy attack hit the trapinch full on. Brendan's status clip started beeping in alarm.

"Hoho!" Dillon laughed shortly.

"Back, trapinch," Brendan said, and grabbed another pokemon from his bag and released it.

Swampert overshadowed the weezing, giving a roar, stomping and making the ground shake. On all fours, its head was near level with Brendan's, but it was much wider and heavier.

"Wow!" Dillon said. "Sludge bomb again, Weezer!"

The pokemon fired the purple attack which hit the swampert's front leg.

"Swam!" it roared, and unleashed muddy water, hurling forth a wave of brown shimmering energy that briefly shredded through the grass as real water. It hit the weezing, transducting back into energy, and knocked it out.

"Well!" said Dillon, appearing to be trying to squelch some anger as he recalled Weezer. "My next pokemon -my prize pokemon-" -he had a silly triumphant look on his face like there was some sort of surprise- "-a manectric! Go!"

"Smart, huh?" Brendan half-smirked.

"You don't know what level it is!" Dillon said.

"Manectric, use shock wave!"

"Swampert, earthquake!"

Swampert weren't particularly fast, but this one was faster than the manectric. Almost every time Brendan had used it, it had had the pokerus, and levelled up with large stat increases - in fact, it probably had been the first carrier of the virus. It was Brendan's first pokemon - a present from Professor Birch that Norman had brought home from Hoenn in his days as a scientist.

The swampert let off a glow of energy and shook its opponent with a rumble. The manectric fainted.

"Ho! You think you're tough!" blustered Dillon, after a moment of stunned silence. He was definitely a bit red now. "Go, my roserade!"

The masked grass pokemon was released.

"Let's try muddy water again," Brendan grinned.

"Swaaam!" said she, and hit the roserade full-on. The attack wasn't very effective in the type rule books, but the roserade, starting to prepare a magical leaf attack, faltered and fainted.

"What?! You-that-that was a water attack! Against grass! What level are you?" Dillon burst out, leaving his roserade lying there.

Brendan looked at the stat clip on his jacket pocket.

"Nearly 67," Brendan said, returning his swampert.

"No fair! My manectric was 70! You cheated!"

Brendan snorted loudly.

"Yeah, I know you did!" Dillon continued, red, scrubbing the lightly falling ash off his eyelashes. "Maybe you've been cheating or something ever since trainer's school! I used to respect you, but you just fainted all my pokemon, and there isn't no way I can figure that out, other than you're a cheater! What items do you have? Did you feed them something?

"Nothing, what if I'm better than you?" Brendan shrugged a little.

"You know what, maybe that one time I did beat you by fluke, 'cos cheaters get cheated!"

"You're an idiot, Dillon-"

"Yeah, well better to be an 'idiot' and have friends than cheat your way to the top!" Dillon's Nav rang and he flipped it out to read a text. Closing it, he recalled his roserade. "I'm going off to route 111 to meet Brooke and Wilton."

"Brooke from my school? She and Wilton finally...?"

"Seeya, Brendan," Dillon called as he spitefully marched off.

"Loser," Brendan yelled after him. He didn't look back.

Brendan kept going. So what if his pokemon grew better than others', there was no proof of anything doing it, and if it was the pokerus, it was perfectly legal, that's what every Pokemon center said. Brendan glowered at the grass as he kicked through it. He'd already met a few friends and a few enemies from trainer's school. Kinda weird how you were friends battling for your school and then you got booted out into the world, and then you were battling against each other. There was this one girl, Cindy, who had been amiable even after they bumped into each other and battled. They'd talked for awhile about memories and plans for the next year. She even asked for a rematch sometime. But all his stronger friends, they'd each met him with a glint in their eye and gave him the cold shoulder after; after he beat them, of course. Lola had called him mean. Ethan, one of his best friends from a year ago, had talked with him a bit, tensely after the battle. No longer friendly.

"I'll let you go," had been the goodbye, with the chin lifted mistrustfully. "To beat the League, right."

Brendan huffed on. Wasn't his fault that he would actually accomplish his goal. _Don't hate me 'cos I'm skilled. And I'm better than you, and I like to show it. I need to show it, because eventually the League's going to be watching._


	7. To the Table

May was up bright and early. The smell and sound of good cooking from other early risers' dwellings tempted her; she wandered for quite awhile before finding a restaurant to eat breakfast at. Fortree wasn't a commercial destination, that was for sure.

"Swablu's Table" said the hand-carved wood sign. The diner was not a treehouse but sheltered under eciduas trained into a fairly waterproof roof.

To May's surprise, actual swablu roosted on perches strung from the ceiling of knotted branches.  
She was feeling pretty energetic compared to yesterday. Today was gym day. She was pretty confident she'd get the feather badge. She'd discovered that morning her wingull had evolved into a pelipper, and that gave her the confidence boost.

"So, wingull eggs? Or delibird eggs?" May asked as the waiter/owner served her her toast and over easies, noting the blue tinge of the yolk.

"Actually, swablu eggs," the older man smiled. "Quite the treat for what travellers we get!" He excused himself to attend to a couple walking in.

Refreshed and on a full stomach, May headed back south, the way she'd come, to train.

She didn't bump into any trainers, only caught sight of some kid pretending he was a ninja running around behind a cardboard tree cutout. The ground was muddy and the air was heavy with the smell of wet grass from the rain yesterday.

"Time to grind," she said to herself, cinching her shoelaces tight and sending out her kirlia.

Roughly twenty-five oddishes and a handful of zigzagoons later, her kirlia fainted. May ran back to the Pokemon center to heal and headed right back out. She'd bought an egg sandwich to go from Swablu's Table but was too set on level 35 to stop for a lunch break.

"Linoooone," growled a wild linoone as it leaped out of the bushes to face the kirlia.

"Psychic," May said, out of habit than necessity. Kirlia attacked the linoone's mind. It proceeded to toss clumps of energy into the air, weakening electric type attacks. Another mental attack from the kirlia finished it off - this time, the psychic type's figure flashed, signalling significant growth. "Awesome," May said to her pokemon as her status clip beeped up to 34. She stepped back into another patch of grass but found herself brushing against the leaves of a palm tree, thick and ... Warm?

"What-" she said, whirling around, as the large 7-foot wide leaves whooshed up and a roosting tropius roared to life in front of her.  
"Ah! Psychic!" May squeaked, jumping back as the tropius lunged at her, flattening the grass underfoot.

"Zig! Zig!" barked a couple zigzagoons, running away as the tropius stomped on their hiding places.

The tropius was helmeted in a veined, rubbery leaf-like growth, and strange fruit-like items grew from its throat. May scrambled back from its hot breath as her kirlia's psychic attack sent it growling, shaking its head from side to side. Maybe they were like Etz's back nodules. Etz's nodules ripened and ruptured about every month. May kept the seedy, mulch-like mix in a paper bag, for her father's future study.

The tropius didn't attack, instead spreading its wings like it was regenerating and resting. Probably was.

"Psychic again," May told her kirlia as it turned to her for instruction.

"Kirrr!"

The attack got another reaction out of the wild tropius but this time it recovered, opened its mouth, and nailed May's kirlia with a sizzling stream of energy.

"No!" May yelled shortly as the solarbeam blasted kirlia and the grass in its path. May ran through the attack - harmless energy to her - and scooped up her kirlia.

But the pokemon was out.

The tropius looked on menacingly. Its line of attack had turned the grass a grey-brown.

May recalled her pokemon and stood to face the tropius. It snorted.

"Yeah, guess what, soon you'll be mine," May said. "Go, Peli!"

The full-grown gull gave a caw as it materialized out of the pokeball.  
Tropius slammed a leather-like, brown foot down, releasing a wave of energy that shot up into Peli. It took the hit.

"Retaliate with shock wave!" May said. The gull summoned an electric jolt of energy above tropius and electrocuted its grass wings. The attack didn't do much damage, but that was perfect.  
"Now protect," May said, laughing a little that she was using the move she thought was most useless. The tropius readied another solarbeam, spreading its wings to absorb sunlight. May dug in her bag for a pokeball and threw it at the tropius just as it began to release the energy beam and Peli formed its shield of blue energy.

The tropius was transducted inside the ultra ball. It dropped heavily with a soft thunk on a patch of flattened grass and wiggled once, twice-

As the tropius exploded out of the ball, blasting out the blazing solarbeam into Peli's protective shield, May quickly grabbed another ball and threw it.

The tropius was transducted inside. The ball fell. It wiggled three times.

"Yes! Haha! You're mine!" May said. Peli flapped over, giving a relieved sort of "Perrr!"

Several zigzagoon & co. battles later, May decided she was ready for the gym.


	8. Off with Cozmo

Fallarbor was hemmed in by the jagged, but picturesque, foothills of the crags that contained the famous Mount Chimney. Brendan strolled through the city, after healing his pokemon (solely to restore PP).

"We've restored your pokemon to full health. They appear to have a microscopic infection. But don't worry, they are fine," the nurse said.

"Yep," Brendan said, taking his pokemon back.

It was a mining city. Smoke went up from the stacks of the refineries on the western side of the city. This was a city with money. The houses were plentiful and a good number of them were quite lavish in size, all arranged on a grid of numbered streets. Not much greenery to speak of, but Brendan encountered more than one brick square with a pond in the middle, people gathered on the benches around it and talking.

Brendan got pretty close to the refineries but decided he wasn't interested. Most of his friends at trainer's school were there. There was lots of money in physically or chemically extracting rock-bound energy, for use in potions, TMs, HMs, water suspension systems, research and a whole lot more. Yeah, his mom had encouraged him to go be a miner, or at least maybe try doing titration so one of those cave-ins wouldn't be a worry, but no. Brendan figured if the whole trainer thing worked out he had good enough grades to dust plan B off. There were really only thirteen paid trainer positions; it was understandable why one would not go chasing after such a career. Those who didn't make it to gym leader often became rangers so they could get a salary and still hang out and battle - oh yes, and enforce the law - but Brendan wasn't going to be a failure like that.

The smoke was black and as Brendan got closer he could hear the dull sound of heavy equipment operating. He began to smell the smelter. Yuck. Worse than ash and soot. He turned around and, with purpose, made his way to the Devon research facility here, Meteor Lab. He knew a couple interns there. Might as well check it out. Maybe they would let him into the restricted Meteor Falls area south of here; he'd heard there were some killer dragon types to be caught there.

The facility was smooth, gray with purple glass. Brendan wondered as he looked up at long three-story building if he was allowed to go in. He shrugged mentally and pulled the glass doors open, stepping into the air-conditioned bliss.

It was a clean, white facility. The reception desk was backed by four secretaries; frosted glass doors led to his left and right; there was an elevator for going up and down.

Brendan approached a receptionist.

"Hello, how may I help you?" the pretty girl with long purple hair asked. Brendan leaned on the counter.

"I'm looking for an intern, Harold," he said.

"What's your name?" she smiled.

"Brendan, yours?" he returned the smile.

"Oh, um, Kate," she said, a little flustered. "I'll just give him a page." She turned on her swivel chair to access the paging system. Brendan watched her. She was wearing a tight white and partially see-through dress shirt.

"Ok, he'll probably be down in a bit," she told him.

"Thanks." Brendan waited a split second. "So, are you a trainer too?"

"Why do you ask?" Her finely waxed eyebrows rose in surprise.

"The hair. Nice colour choice," Brendan gave her a half-grin.

"Oh, well thank you, yes, I used to work as an in-gym trainer for Flannery," Kate said, blushing a little. "No one here really cares about training, though."

"I do. That's cool. When I battled Flannery, I actually thought some of the gym trainers were stronger than her." Another path of employment trainers could take was being an in-gym trainer, but it was menial pay and a tough life, being a stepping stone for any challenger who came.

"You've beaten Flannery?"

"Yes, and Norman."

"Oh, Norman! I tried to get a position there, but," she lowered her voice, "I wasn't strong enough."

"Yeah, that's a strong gym," Brendan said and Kate nodded. "Norman's actually my dad."

"No kidding!" Kate's eyes widened.

Brendan grinned. Someday, he would get off his dad's coattails and introduce himself as the Hoenn champion.

Just then, a young man with thick blonde hair and a big nose wearing a lab coat came out of the elevator and approached Kate.

"Hi Kate, you said there's someone here-" the guy caught sight of Brendan- "-oh hey, it's Brendan!"

"Hey, Harold, been while since trainer's school," Brendan said as Harold reached for his hand and shook it warmly.

"Well that's who came for you, so I'll leave you guys," Kate said. Both men gave her a smile as she got up to go to the back filing room.

"Yes, it has been awhile, my man, I still remember you in the battle tier finals!" Harold said.

"Yeah, and you always getting top in your classes."

"Well, it's my passion," Harold grinned. "How's the XP period?"

"Good, halfway to the League, yours?"

"Oh, excellent, we're actually studying in Meteor falls. I'm helping Professor Cozmo."

"Cozmo? That's the guy who they got in sometimes to do presentations."

"Yeah, he's excellent, he's actually doing research for Devon corporation."

"They're everywhere," Brendan said.

"Yeah," Harold laughed.

"I was hoping you could take me out into the field and show me around," Brendan said, sticking hand into his shorts pocket.

"Meteor falls is actually restricted to public access right now," Harold said.

"That's why I'm asking you," Brendan said, raising an eyebrow.

"Ah," Harold laughed, "We were just on our way out. I guess I'll ask Cozmo if you can come, granted you don't even think of releasing a pokemon while inside."

"Deal."

"Ok, all the supplies are at the research outpost - Cozmo should be down any minute."

The boys turned around as someone else in a lab coat came out of the elevator. It was another intern from Fallarbor's school; Brendan was introduced and the intern said Cozmo had some unexpected guests visit.

They made small talk for several minutes.

The elevator dinged again. Three golbats flapped out, followed by two scuttling crawdaunts, followed by two snarling mightyenas. And those followed by seven Aquas and Professor Cozmo, who was 30 something with fine black hair and looking quite disrupted at the moment, being shouldered along by the reformist group members.

"Hey!" Harold shouted at the Aquas, taking a step forward, but the mightyenas pounced at him, teeth snapping. One ripped the edge of his coat off as he jumped back. These weren't battle-trained pokemon - they were trained to kill.

"Archie!" Brendan yelled at the hefty Aqua in black silk.

The Aqua leader elbowed Shelley, at his side, who stopped the entourage. The two mightyenas circled Brendan and the interns, growling.

"Yo, it's the kid from the shipyard in Slateport!" Archie chuckled. "You should stay out of our way this time! Mightyenas, get back here!"

The wolfish pokemon retreated and sat down lazily by Archie, malevolent glints in their dark eyes. The crawdaunts clacked their claws.

"What are you doing?!" Harold and the intern burst out at Archie.

"I-I need-" Cozmo was stuttering from behind Shelley.

"Professor Cozmo here has kindly decided to show us around Meteor Falls and explain what's up with all this Devon research," Archie said. His rap industry standard was alive and well, bandana tied neatly over his close-shaved black hair. "Shelley and you two, come with me," he continued in his nasal tone. "Hey kid, you can fight these other guys till I return," Archie said with a grin, motioning to the three other Aquas.

Brendan saw a look of reluctance cross the mentioned members' faces and almost laughed.

"But-but-to show you around, I need the interns-to help open all the material-" Cozmo was stuttering, trying to straighten his glasses but shaking so badly his efforts were in vain.

"You two," Shelley said, stepping up, referring to the interns, "are you trainers?"

"No," they replied, gazed flicking from one enemy to the next, unsure what to do.

"Come with us," she told them. The mightyenas herded them into the entourage. Before Brendan could think, they were stampeding out the door - but three Aquas disentangled themselves and faced Brendan with a golbat and the crawdaunts.

"Alright, let's make this quick," Brendan said, glancing back at Kate and the startled reception.

"My trapinch, swampert, and Swell!" He released his three pokemon of choice.

The enemy's attacks came hard and fast. Dark energy crunched in on the trapinch, waves left the tile floor wet as they boomed into Swell and the swampert.

"Good going, Crawdy!" one of the Aquas cheered.

Brendan had nothing to worry about yet.

"Crunch back, trapinch! Swell, use fly and my swampert, earthquake!" he commanded his pokemon.

A return attack of dark energy came closing in on the golbat. Swell shot up to the roof and while it was up, the swampert shook her opponents fiercely, letting off a haze of energy. Brendan didn't really know why she did that now when she attacked - it had started about level 65.

The two crawdaunts fainted, as did the trapinch - at least Brendan had harnessed the Exp share around its stocky body; his status clip signalled growth of two more levels.

The golbat tried to use wing attack on Swell, but Swell was zooming around in the steel rafters. It dived down, forming a blue ball of energy pushed into an arrowhead by its speed, and nailed the golbat.

"Ha," Brendan almost chortled. He returned his swampert and fainted trapinch.

The Aquas didn't look as vengeful as they did repressed. They recalled their pokemon. Brendan left the secretaries to deal with them and sprinted outside into the thick air, dashing towards Meteor Falls. Swell followed him above, an elegant dash of dark red and dark blue.


	9. A History of Us

The brass band gym theme struck up as May passed the entry stands inside Fortree's gym. Her dad's warning repeated itself in her mind.

But to figure out this gym first. It was a maze-like design, shaved ecidua trunks lashed together, multi-pronged log turnstiles shutting off or opening up different paths. May pushed through the first one arbitrarily and rounded a corner, running into a gym trainer dressed in red sweatpants.

He was tossing a pokeball in one hand.

"I'll give you taste of what Winona's like," he said, sizing her up.

Well, she was on the right path at least. "Alright," she said, mustering a bit of a challenging expression. She felt a shot of nervousness as she released her kirlia; it was level 35 and she wasn't sure why it wasn't evolving.

"Go, Swaby!" the guy said, releasing a blue downy bird with cloud-like wings, the edges of which misted as it flapped up and down.

"My kirlia, psybeam!" May commanded. The swablu chirped piercingly as the kirlia took hold of its body and psychically threw waves of mental energy at it. The bird took a moment to recover and then let out a melodious short tune. Sound-wave reminiscent energy floated towards May's kirlia, which had no problem dodging the attack.

"Psybeam again!" May said.

"Swablu, avoid it!" the trainer ordered, but too late; the swablu again cried in distress. This time the attack left it confused and it started darting about in panic, slamming into the walls of shaved eciduas. Each time it did so it lost HP. May heard the trainer's status clip beeping alarm; he had it in a studded band around his wrist.

"Swablu! Snap out of it! Use gust!" he started saying loudly as if to drown out the beeping.

"Finish it, kirlia!" May ordered. Whipping its head back and forth to follow the swablu's erratic flight path, her pokemon mentally gripped its target and knocked it out with a psychic wave.

The trainer recalled his swablu. "My Reppilep! Go!"

The gull pokemon transducted out of its pokemon, cawing. May's kirlia scurried back, readying itself to attack.

Although the pelipper narrowly took the kirlia out with a few wing attacks and luck, May's Peli finished off the member of its own species, winning the battle and prize money. She continued through the gym, pushing creaking turnstiles around again and again, battling trainers until she finally got to Winona, who stood on a simple wooden platform on ground level. The ceiling was laid with a burnt wood carving of two futuristic flying Pokemon with jet-like wings, circling each other in a yin-yan style. The space around the platform was large and enclosed with a net slung from the ceiling. It was a flying gym, after all.

Winona was seated on a chaise lounge type seat with four pokeballs beside her, but stood as May came to face her.

"Hello trainer," the woman in her late twenties said with an easy and confident smile, "I am Winona, the Leader of the Fortree Pokémon Gym. I have soared the skies with bird pokemon... However grueling the battle, we have always triumphed with grace."

"I would like to challenge you," May said, noticing her fingers were tingling at her sides. She'd never been nervous like this before. Winona was tall, wearing a blue aviator cap, her long mauve-dyed hair flowing out of it. She stood elegant in long white pantaloons and a tight, seamed vest.

"Of course," Winona said. "Witness the elegant choreography of bird pokemon and I!"

She released a nicely groomed swellow, reminding May of Brendan's swellow. His was more elegant, May thought, however high and mighty Winona claimed to be.

May released her Peli and the fight ended in a draw, even though Peli used shock wave. May gulped as she released her kirlia. This is going all wrong, she felt more than thought. She could shut her brain up but her gut kept talking.

When her kirlia defeated Winona's skarmory, all the leader said was,

"Your attack is strong, but it lacks elite style!"

Indeed, Winona's pokemon executed their moves with trained artistic flourish, as did she while releasing them.

May's kirlia ripped through Winona's pelipper in a couple of psychic attacks. However, Winona's imposing altaria knocked it out with a blazing, beautiful sky attack.

"Ok, my tropius," May said, releasing her newest team member.

Another sky attack nailed it.

Snickering from the gym trainers filtered in from over the tree trunk walls.

"Here we go again," May thought she heard from the first gym trainer, a derisive tone.

It was Etz next. The altaria executed another sky attack. Etz fainted. May hated the easy, almost bored smile on Winona's face.

She was down to her numel and her makuhita.

"Sky attack," Winona said again.

May's makuhita was out.

"Go numel," May said weakly.

"Dragonbreath," Winona said to her prize pokemon, unexpectedly. The rushing stream of orange and green flame-like energy didn't knock the little camel out, but it paralyzed it. Great. Just rub it in, May thought as the altaria flourished a few rolls in the air and gracefully sky attacked the numel, as May's status clip beeped, and then stopped beeping.

She felt faint. She mumbled some form of thanks to Winona, handed over money, and made it out somehow.

Facing the wall, shielding her face, she gritted her teeth and tried not to cry and got a cramp in her mouth from trying to stop it turning down in despair. It was her first gym loss. And she had been demolished. There were a couple people eating lunch in the shade of Swablu's Table, laughing and conversing around her.

Mewtwo, why was she even crying? _Stop it, you're being stupid, it's just a gym, you're a failure, you failed. You trained and it didn't work and that stupid Brendan, at the rate you're going he'll catch up and beat you to it. _

"Would you like to order?" a waiter asked, approaching her.

May shook her head, said sorry and left at a jog.

She went back to her room at the Pokemon Center. She buried her face in the mediocre quality duvet.

A bit later, she realized why she was crying. She'd never lost a battle, except to Brendan, but he didn't count because he was a lucky pigheaded child. Brawly, Roxanne, Wattson, Flannery, Norman, her school friends she met here and there, she'd defeated them all.

_Stop crying, idiot,_ she told herself. She kept replaying the battle mentally. _Maybe _this_. I could've_ that. _How am I ever going to get past that altaria? It's impossible. _

Eventually she released her kirlia to wander around the small room. She watched it.

"And why aren't you evolving," she moaned. "Maybe if you evolved I wouldn't have lost."

It looked at her briefly before going to play with the filmy curtains.

May heaved a noisy sigh. She needed distraction.

Her Nav beeped. Digging it out of her backpack, May flopped down on the bed and read the message sender - it was from Rosa! May sat up straighter. Rosa, her best friend, since they had been children in Littleroot. Rosa had lived with her grandparents. Birch never really got to know the family who moved in, but one day in grade one May had befriended Rosa.

May had been pretty popular in grade one. Her dad, then, had had collaborators in other regions to share workload of a project, and often took her to Rustoboro and bought her the latest pokemon dolls. She remembered playing games with all the other kids, doing weird little kid things she didn't really want to remember.

At any rate, it was one recess as the teacher's chingling was signalling everyone back in. Little May, with more baby fat than she had now, ushered everyone back in. She had been so bossy. The last person left outside was Rosa, her brown hair uncombed, sitting on a swing with a new azurill doll.

"Hey! I saw that doll in Rustoboro!" May said, running up to Rosa.

"I got it there," the other girl said.

"Have you seen my dolls?"

"Mayyybe some..."

"It's time to go inside, come on!" May beckoned.

The girls ran inside together. And that's how it had been for the next nine years. About grade eight, May had fallen out of popularity - when obeying teachers and forcing others to obey was not cool - but regardless of how she grew more reserved, and how Rosa became more involved in clothes and contests, they remained friends, hanging out all the time, having only several acquaintances outside of their relationship.

Rosa stuck with May when Mrs. Birch suddenly left, and May stuck with Rosa when her grandma died.

When Rosa's sporadically-dropping-in mom (whom the girls had ever hoped would fall in love with May's dad, after he became a widower) returned with a handsome rich man and whisked her off to the Mainland, May had suddenly not known what to do with herself. She and Rosa texted each other all the time on their Navs. May got a bit envious of Rosa's new luxury house and neighbourhood and all the important things that were developing on the Mainland. It was a life a whole social class above regional life, as it was the Mainland that initiated and coordinated the regions. A boy and his mom and his gym leader dad moved into Rosa's house.

It was still Rosa's house to May.

Professor Birch encouraged May to make friends with the new kid next door and she showed him the ropes a little in the field. But at school he made friends quickly, and more than she had now without Rosa.

Over the next year and half, Rosa's texts and messages grew filled with parties and politics and pictures of new shoes she'd bought. May kept messaging Rosa with information about her pokemon journey and complaints about Brendan, once she left on her experience period, but Rosa's replies quickly made it clear pokemon were not in on the Mainland.

"My grovyle evolved into a sceptile!" May had told her right after her starter had evolved, before anyone else.

"Cool, guess what I met this guy at my job at the 4th Destination - it's the hottest downtown restaurant - we had been in choir together before but he'd changed so much I almost didn't recognize him!" The picture showed a guy who looked almost twenty with killer blue eyes and rough stubble, wearing a plaid shirt and jeans. The clothing looked absurd to May; completely not Hoenn style. "So we're going to Drayton's party at the retro bowling alley this weekend! Luv yas!"

So Rosa had seen this guy before, and somewhere within a year, she had met him again and all this stuff about he had changed and now she was evidently absorbed with him. _So, um, there's a friend you've had for ten years, I bet she's changed too, she might be a little interesting..._

May kept on replying with comments on the rather vapid information, kept asking questions, kept telling Rosa about her own life. The replies, however, continued being impersonal and ... they just didn't give away any information about what Rosa was like as a person. When the messages came at all, that is. The last time May had heard from her was last month.

Still, May felt a bolt of hope - not happiness, but hope - as she opened her Nav.

Another vapid status update. Something about her and the guy dating.

A comment too. "Seriously May, like I know Pokemon live in the regions but trust me, there are like way better things to do! You should give it up and come to the Mainland :*"

_That did it. Freakin' Mainland. I am so giving up on you, Rosa,_ May steamed. Rosa used to love pokemon! She hadn't been the best student, but absolutely loved the contest pokemon and would go with May and her dad to watch contests on the weekend!_ Give it up? You think I would just freakin' give it up? I bet your friends think pokemon are some child's fantasy and you want them to like you and you've forced yourself to forget everything you used to love. Like me._

May tried to think of some way to explain herself to Rosa but gave up in the end.

"Bye, Rosa. Have a nice life," she sent, and deleted Rosa from her contacts.

May stretched out on the bed. Wet warmth ran off her cheeks and she told herself angrily not to be so pitiful as she slowly fell asleep, her kirlia at her side, looking bemused.

* * *

**N.B. I was sorely tempted to call this chapter "History in the MAYking". For the sake of your sanity, I did not.**

**I know it's kinda depressing. Don't worry, Brendan's past is even worse! Lolololololololol ok now I have to figure out how Magma, Aqua, Prof Cozmo and Brendan all mush together and come out excellent and roarin' for the fight I've already written.**

**REVIEW THIS THING ALREADY. I won't post anymore until anyone says they'll actually read it.**


	10. What Sign?

Brendan dashed west through Fallarbor's streets. Whatever Harold had said about no pokemon allowed in Meteor Falls, that option was out.

His breath came in spurts; the day was hot and he caught citizens turning to look at him as he and Swell rushed past. He made a turn south before the chain link fences and flat buildings and smokestacks of the mining industrial.

Meteor Falls' entrance was barricaded by a garage-type metal door, a "No Unauthorized Personnel" sign outside it, pounded into the dirt.

Well, that was surprising: Aqua was closing doors behind them.

Meteor Falls was a system of underground waterfalls in caverns. It was pretty much the only sightseeing place in Fallarbor; apparently there were some pretty cool caves and things inside hidden under the relatively nondescript hunk of rock.

Brendan tried heaving the door open; nope, it was locked. He released his swampert.

The large pokemon stomped around, looking at her trainer for instruction.

"Swampert, get that door open!" Brendan told his evolved childhood companion.

"Swam," she roared with relish, slamming with a reverberating metal thunk into the door. It buckled and folded as she gave it a couple more shoulder checks.

"Great," Brendan said, recalling her and crawling under the crumpled door, groping around in the dark.

"Swell, swell?" His bird landed outside and clawed at the door with its talons.

"Hold on," Brendan muttered as he found the open switch.

Disfigured as the door was, the opening mechanism made the it shriek and moan as it was pulled open just enough for Swell to hop under.

Brendan got a flashlight out of his backpack. Swell started complaining as Brendan turned and followed the sound of running water deeper into the cave.

"Shut up and follow," Brendan said amiably. "I need your hearing skills, Swell."

The cave-adverse pokemon reluctantly hopped along beside him, talons clicking on the rock.

The first large cavern the downward sloping passage opened into was the main one. A large waterfall crashed down from the dark heights of the ceiling into a deep lake. It probably flowed down from the mountains.

Shiny, cloudy stalactites hung down along the craggy walls, looking like bloated icicles.

There was some machinery along one wall and Brendan jogged over. The noise of the waterfall covered his footsteps. He couldn't make sense of the consoles; maybe a point of data storage or retrieval. There were two more passageways off this large cavern.

Brendan looked at Swell. It walked around a bit like a pigeon, then paused, head cocked, by the south exit, almost tripping on the uneven ground.

Brendan hid a smile as he took the lead, and then wiped out on a slippery, bowl-like depression in the ground.

"Shit!" he said, standing as the forewarning of a bruise warmed his backside.

"Aww!" crowed Swell laughingly.

"Shush!" Brendan hissed.

"Ohhw," Swell peeped.

They continued on, Brendan keeping his flashlight beam low. There were a lot more of those craters in the ground. Looked like they had been slicked by mineral deposits. Some of them were even ringed by short stalagmites. The next cave opened up a bit. A large crater with little deposit in it was roped off and archaeological tools were scattered about.

The next passage led even more downward. Swell balked a little, but led the way. Voices became audible to Brendan's ear, breaking the eerie, dripping ambiance of the cave system. He switched off his flashlight as light filtered in from up ahead, and stopped at the entrance to a low-ceilinged cave.

"I-I-told you, nothing here, we've looked for awhile and certainly, um-" Professor Cozmo was saying in his high, accented voice.

Brendan peeked in for a second. This cavern contained several roped off craters and also a series of crystal-like steppes which also had equipment surrounding them: there were stands with computers on top of them, at which stood Cozmo, the interns, and the Aquas. The cavern was lit by some gas lamps hammered into the wall. Everything was cast in a sickly yellow glow. What a place to work.

The mightyenas sat in a ring around them. One whipped its gaze in Brendan's direction and he quickly withdrew into the passage.

An oof from Cozmo sounded, followed by Archie's voice.

"I'll see if that's true," came the Aqua leader's slightly nasal tone. Computer keys clacked.

"Never mind the computer, tell us about these craters you're examining," Shelley's clear voice came, followed by foot shuffling.

"Like I said, it's just craters. We found the meteorite activity that we were looking for, but there's no active power to the properties of the meteorite, and they wouldn't sell for much either-" Harold started. A mightyena snarled and feet shuffled on the rock.

"Really? Then why is Devon investing energy into this project?" Shelley said accusingly.

"It's for support of science, nothing more, nothing commercial-" Harold's voice came, sounding pleading.

"Yo, don't bother with that," Archie said, "There's nothing on the laptop." His voice became louder as he turned to face someone else. "But I also know what else has been found, heh. Maybe you haven't heard yet of what we've been doing round here."

There was the sound of something hitting one of the computer desks. Harold made a choking sound as a grunt came from Archie.

"Ask Cozmo-" gasped Harold.

"Shut it and listen. Your professor's mental; you'll answer my question. There was an ancient document excavated in these parts. In a lower cavern than this. You let Devon know of that, but not all this crater stuff. Suddenly, they're building a submarine. And they won't tell anyone where the legendary pokemon they're going to go look for is." Archie's voice rose in volume then dropped off. "Now tell us what Devon wouldn't."

"F-first of all, we-we don't have the authority to confirm they-they are, in fact, legendary pokemon-" Cozmo piped up.

"There are two?" Shelley said.

"Oh, well, yes, but the other one - I mean, the League, we're not allowed-" Cozmo's voice shook.

"Shelley, stop clouding the issue. Of course there's two. We only want the water one."

"You never let me read the letter!" Shelley said angrily.

"You should know about it, it's been lying somewhere around Sootopolis for awhile," Archie muttered condescendingly.

There was a moment of silence and then another thud and an 'urf' from Harold.

"Where. Is. The pokemon. You mentioned in the letter to Devon?" Archie ground out.

Something like "merp" came from Harold. "I won't tell you, it's being protected and-"

Another thud and the mightyenas all started howling and the other Aquas yelled at them to quiet down. Rushed footsteps sounded and Brendan flattened himself in the passageway as the other intern fled, but a mightyena leapt on him, grabbed his coat and dragged him back. Growling and a yell of pain came later.

"Will protecting ancient pokemon do any good? No! They should be used to show the Mainland a thing or two about how they dictate our land!" Archie was saying in all the noise. "Increasing the sea's domain over Hoenn will demonstrate that we've had enough of their government! And be sure, everyone not loyal to Aqua and the ancient pokemon will drown in their old ways. So it's best to follow orders now."

A moment of silence.

Brendan figured he could take them on, and thought he'd better, as he peeked in. Archie let go of Harold, but no sooner had the intern got his breath back than Archie sic'd a mightyena on him. It dug its teeth into his side and dragged him down onto the cave floor. Harold yelled in pain.

Archie had a grin and a look of satisfaction on his face, as Shelley restrained the blubbering Cozmo.

Brendan moved without thinking, stepping into the room, but through another cave entrance thundered a camerupt, stampeding through Shelley and Cozmo, knocking them aside and scattering the mightyena. Debris crumbled from the ceiling with the camerupt's rampage and Brendan stepped back, half inside the passage. Harold got up and scrambled behind the computer desk, as did the other intern.

Archie looked to the cave entrance. Six people entered, dressed in gray-blacks and smouldering reds.

Three golbats, three mightyenas and a levitating claydol followed them in.

Archie's expression said he recognized the guy wearing a hoodie, who lead the Magmas in.

"_Again?_ I thought we lost you, flying from the Institute!" Shelley was the first to speak as the groups stood facing each other, pushing her red curls over her shoulder.

"Indeed," the man in the red hoodie spoke. "I see you didn't take our order to leave Hoenn."

Archie sneered at them, snapping his fingers. His mightyena returned to his side; the camerupt was lapping water from a small pool on the other side of the cave. Apparently it had done its job.

"But don't worry," the Magma admin continued, "We have a different task for you today. We'd like to talk to Archie and you," he said, referring to Shelley.

Archie stayed tense for a moment, then relaxed. "I'll talk."

Shelley looked at him in surprise.

"Everyone else, leave," he told his other team members.

"We will escort them out," said the man in the hoodie. "You should accompany them," he nodded to the hyperventilating Cozmo, injured Harold, and the other intern. The hooded admin helped Harold up as the blonde intern squeezed his eyes shut, clamping a hand to his bloodied side. Cozmo and the other intern clustered behind them. Four of the Magmas herded the two Aquas towards the exit and Brendan was abruptly noticed. As the Aquas stopped in surprise, the Magmas pushed them along.

"Hey you," one of the Aquas said as they were herded out of the cave, Harold not looking up as the Magma admin supported him along.

Archie glanced back at Brendan with a look of angry annoyance.

"Who's this?" the female of the remaining two Magmas asked - still flanked by imposing pokemon.

Archie opened his mouth but then closed it and gave Shelley a nudge.

"Never mind, Archie and ... Shelley isn't it," the male Magma said, "follow me. Courtney, take care of that kid."

Their focus on Brendan, the two Aquas followed the Magma out the entrance they had entered.

The cavern was empty, save a camerupt, Brendan and a girl in a long leather skirt and cropped red top. She crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry, but didn't you see the sign outside?"

"What sign?" Brendan said monotonously.

"You need to leave, and please do not spread this news around," she said sternly. She had small features and nondescript black hair.

Brendan was about to order his swellow to take her out, but he had a better idea.

"Ok, ok sorry," he said defensively, backing out. "I just saw team - the blue team, and I thought it was really bad of them to sneak in! Just don't hurt me with your pokemon!"

"Alright, don't worry, we'll manage them," Courtney said. "Not a word to anyone."

Brendan bobbed his head and skittered back into the passageway, making his footsteps decrescendo from loud to soft. In the darkness he could see Swell's sharp eyes gleam inquisitively.

After waiting a minute, snickering to himself at the girl's gullibility, Brendan crept quietly back and recalled Swell. The cavern was empty; the Magma girl must've followed the others.

Time to do some eavesdropping.

* * *

**N.B. If you want to read the rest of what I've written TELL ME. Or if you don't, tell me why! AND I WILL FIX IT! **


	11. Dawn

**Seriously guys. I need me some reviews here. **

**AN: Winona is tough. And yes I decided Wallace is her bro. They're all about grace and stuff. Yes there is a backstory. A heart-rending story you will have to review and ask me to post.**

* * *

Nothing from Rosa in the morning. May woke up early. She'd fallen asleep too early the other day, something like 6 p.m. May paid for a shower with more credits, leaving her kirlia asleep in her room.

Something between bitterness and determination settled in her stomach. She wolfed down yesterday's egg sandwich and headed out into the same field where she'd caught her tropius to train.

First up was her kirlia. It seemed to sense its trainer's state of mind and focused on sapping the energy from one zigzagoon after another, linoone if lucky. Battling was an exchange of energy, really - at least for the winning pokemon. Spend kinetic attack energy, get it back in potential experience energy. Before long they were halfway down route 19.

Over thirty-some battles, the kirlia's health had slowly decreased with the odd tackle here, headbutt there. It was running out of PP, a measure of energy which dictated how many times a certain attack could be used.

A headbutt from a linoone left May's status clip beeping.

"Psychic!" May said forcefully as her kirlia stood sluggishly.

"Kir..." it whirred, mentally brushing its foe's mind... and then it fainted. May recalled it. "Why aren't you evolving, we could have beat the gym now if you had," she muttered as she sent out Peli.

They worked their way back up the route. Peli got to level 36. Then it was Tropius' turn, back down route 119. The ground was boggy, almost but not quite freed of moisture. Tropius didn't last very long. It fainted versus a zigzagoon which Etz finished off.

May had tied her jacket around her waist. Rosa would've laughed at her for it. If she were here. _Stop it, May,_ she told herself.

Her mess of prospects and choices made and choices made for her was churning hard enough to get her back to Fortree in no time. She healed her pokemon at the Pokemon Center. She was hungry but ignored it, taking her pokemon back from the nurse and heading off into the shade of Fortree.  
The usual chatter surrounded her; lots of Hoenn's wood, which was a quality export, was grown and harvested in a large wood camp and facility several miles north. The men would go for a shift of a week or so and come back for a few days off. While they were gone and the children in school, the women visited with each other.

She entered the gym and walked quickly past all the trainers, heaving the turnstiles in the correct ways. If she lost this gym battle, she'd be basically broke.

She waited as Winona was finishing up a battle with a kid younger than her. From the look on his face he hadn't won.

May stepped up onto the wooden platform.

"Hello," Winona said. "Shall we start?"

"You could be more polite," was out of May's mouth before she could stop it.

Winona smiled. It looked like an amused smile. "I figured you'd heard it all already. Go, my skarmory!"

So, she liked to switch it up.

"Go, Peli," May ordered, remaining calm.

The skarmory barely had time to screech, lowering Peli's defense stat, before the gull totalled its opponent with water gun.

May thought she saw a glint of surprise in Winona's gaze.

"Alright, my swellow!" the gym leader said, releasing her bird as she came out of a jazz turn. Her swellow executed a near-vertical spin upwards.  
Not impressed, May thought.

The swellow was faster than Peli. It dove at the gull and pulled up short, sending a blast of crystallish energy from its wings. Peli took the attack.

"Shock wave," May said, keeping a level head. The swellow fainted.

"Return, swellow!" Winona said.

"Altaria, finish this!" She did a couple steps of a chassé, bowing as Altaria swirled out of the pokeball in a stream of light and circled her in a conic flight path. "Sky attack!"

"Shock wave!" May told Peli. This time, the gull was faster. It landed the attack, but since altaria was dragon type as well, it wasn't a super effective move.  
The altaria dived at Peli with a melodic cry, glowing. Just before it swooped above Peli, the glow jetted into him, bursting with curls of dark blue energy.

"Wing attack!" May shouted.

"Sky attack," retaliated Winona.

Peli fainted.

"Alright," May said. She was going to do something she usually didn't like to do. "Makuhita!" She felt sorry for the fighting pokemon as sky attack took it out.

Winona stood confidently and tossed her long mauve hair behind a shoulder.

"Ok, do it, numel!"

May read the scoffing look behind Winona's slight smile as the altaria easily knocked the low-level fire pokemon out with the same move.

"Well," May said, recalling her pokemon, trying to look afraid and defeated - looked like pride could be Winona's fall - "Go, my kirlia!"

"Sky attack," Winona commanded again.

"My kirlia, nail it with a psybeam!"

Quickly, as the altaria was ascending and beginning to glow with prepared energy, the level 42 psychic type blasted it with a strong mental attack. The altaria screeched, an ugly screech with no melodic quality whatsoever, and immediately started flying this way and that confusedly.

May tried not to grin. Kirlia attacked again with its signature psychic attack, catching hold of the altaria's mind and bending and stretching it. The altaria screeched again as its wings seized up for a moment.

Winona recalled her altaria. May gritted her teeth. Altaria had the ability to heal status problems when switched out. That meant the confusion wouldn't last.

"Pelipper!" Winona said, executing a jazz drag on her right, compass turning as her pelipper zoomed around her the opposite direction.

Dear Mewtwo, May thought. This isn't a pokemon contest.

"Kirlia, psybeam!" she commanded it. It did significant damaged but didn't confuse the bird, which retaliated with aerial ace. May made a bad decision and told her kirlia to hit it with psybeam, when psychic probably would've KO'd it.  
The next aerial ace made the kirlia faint, just as it knocked the pelipper out with another psybeam. May switched to tropius; her last. Out came Winona's altaria, barely hanging on to consciousness. But Winona's smile showed she believed in her flying type's superior speed as she demanded another sky attack.

May's hope faltered briefly as the altaria began to climb into the air. But it wasn't glowing. It peeped helplessly, fluttering in a slow circle.  
Winona showed obvious signs of nervousness.

May grinned triumphantly at the gym leader, not holding anything back. She could rub it in too.

"Prepare solarbeam!" May ordered Tropius. It spread its leafy wings, preparing energy.

Winona's features jerked themselves into angry realization as she checked her status clip. May had used her numel and makuhita to use up the PP of sky attack, guessing that against weak pokemon, Winona would show off. Now it had no energy left for its signature move.

Tropius extended its neck and fired a blazing, twisting beam of energy at the altaria, not letting up as its opponent fell from the sky with a cry of distress.  
Then the battle was over. May reached up to scratch the back of Tropius' leathery neck.

Winona recalled her altaria, looking as if she were suppressing anger.  
She took a slim case of badges out of a pocket in her vest and opened it, not taking her searching gaze off May.

May stared back.

"Never before have I seen a Trainer command pokemon with - with your skill. It was not graceful, but -" Winona cut herself off. "In recognition of your prowess, I present to you this Gym Badge." Her tone was tight.

"Thank you," May said, not quickly, taking the badge and clipping it on a short chain attached to her capris. It jangled with her other five. She took her prize money as well.

May turned and left the platform. At the last second, Winona said,  
"Good luck with the league."

May turned around. She couldn't tell if that was scripted or not.

"You'll have to fight my brother in Sootopolis before that. Expect him to command his pokemon with even more grace than I," Winona said.

"Alright," May said, standing there for a moment. She left quickly.

"Hooooooooo YES!" May yelled, fists clenched, unable to contain herself as she half-skipped, half-dashed down the beaten paths of Fortree. "Yeah, yeah, yeah! Oh team we are AWESOME!"

"Hey, say what?" a girl standing on the porch of a treehouse called.

"Beat Winona!" May called.

"No way," laughed the girl.

May unclipped the badge and held it up. It glinted gently in the shade.

"No way!" the girl repeated, scrambling down the ladder. "Come with me! It's just about brunch hour, eh? It's Saturday .. . Yeah, come on!"

May jogged after her.

"Wait, wait, what's the big deal?"

The girl turned back to look at her.

"Winona hasn't been beaten for like four months!"

May was surrounded by townsfolk, seated at a table at Swablu's Table, telling her story and retelling the battle to children and housewives and kids her age. Her paid-for meal sat untouched in front of her.

"Can we see your kirlia?" an adorable little boy asked.

"Why of course," May said, releasing her pokemon.

"So how did you take out the altaria? With brute force?" a guy with a gameboy advance in one hand asked.

"Yes, how indeed?" a young woman said.

"Well you see, I just had to eliminate its sky attack - kids! Careful with my kirlia!"

"Oh, I'll take care of that," a grandmother with a zigzagoon said, hurrying off to protect the psychic type from being stroked and hugged to insanity.

"So how did you beat her other pokemon?" a tween girl leaned on the table, gazing at May with interest.

"Well, my pelipper was a high level-"

"Wait, how about the altaria?" chimed in another boy with another gameboy hooked to the first boy's.

Things continued in this manner.

A hubbub from Swablu's Table attracted a visitor's attention. The man was wearing khakis and a work shirt, but he'd thrown on a tailored jacket for eating an early lunch. He'd just stopped in to say hi to a clearly upset Winona. He wanted to meet whoever it was who had beaten her; Winona was good, considering the level and type constraints of the gym and it wasn't often new batches of feather badges had to be ordered. He'd also let her know about Aqua's escapades and instructed her to contact him first if anything came up. He doubted she'd really taken it in, though, she had been so focused on her own distress.

The man made his way through a group of kids fawning over a confused kirlia and over to a crowded table.

"... well you should know what PP is if you're in trainer's school," the center of attention was saying to a couple of almost-teenage boys, "Basically, if there's no PP left for a move, you can't use it."

"Oh wow! Genius!" said one boy.

"How about the other pokemon?" half-whined a young girl. A couple of moms paused their own conversation to nod along.

May started to explain, but her gaze flicked to the newcomer. Her eyes grew wide.  
"Steven!" she exclaimed and stood up. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, doing some spelunking on route 121," he said, surprised for just a moment to see that it was letter-carrier May who had just defeated Winona. He proffered a hand. May shook it.

"So you got the letter and took care of everything?" she asked, stepping aside.

Steven nodded, his slightly disheveled silver hair nodding along. His age was hard to place; his smooth, nearly sharp face and jawline said younger than twenty, but his stance and the look in his eyes and under them said older.  
He was not built but rather nicely filled out by lean muscle.

"Yes...we were on the watch for Aqua at Slateport. Actually, a trainer around your age helped out as we couldn't get our defenses together in time."

"Oh, Brendan," May said to herself.

Steven was going to ask what May meant by saying the helpful trainer's name, but decided not to based on her tone.

"Oh," May said animatedly, "I should tell you - I ran into Aqua at the Weather Institute!"

Steven's brows rose, and be beckoned her outside, away from the townsfolk to talk.

"You mean on route 119?" he asked.

"Yes. They had the scientists there trapped, trying to make them give them a weather pokemon. . ." May told him the whole story about Magma's intervention and the rangers' OK.

"Well," Steven raked his fingers through his hair, "that's relieving. Magma... hm, yes, that's good. Although I'm concerned where Aqua will go next; I was starting to think after the submarine parts incident they were gone... Devon will have to still be careful...Well, congratulations May, I should get back to my gem work."

"Wait! Um, you work with stones for Devon, right? Evolutionary stones?"

"Yes, why?"

"My kirlia is level 43 and not evolving."

"Oh, then it must be a male; you'll need a dawn stone! Here, I have..." Steven dug in his dusty messenger bag that was big enough to carry Mount Chimney.

"Ah!" He held up a teal stone that contained bright yellow refractions of light. "Here. Take it."

"Wow, what do I owe you?" May asked.

"Oh, nothing. By the way, do you raise one kind of pokemon or several?"

"Several, why?"

"Well, it's the best way to go," Steven shrugged. "See you soon, May!"

"You ... too," May called as the Devon worker headed off.  
May looked down at the stone in her hand. She noticed one of her shoelace bows was off center and one lace end was longer than the other end. That would never do. She laced it up properly.


	12. First Blood

**Yo. this is my last hope. I will continue to write but not post it if no one likes it.**

* * *

Sure enough, down the new passageway was a smaller cavern. The ceiling was encrusted with gem-like mineral deposits which reflected the light coming from electric lamps pegged into the walls.

In the middle of the room was a table covered in artifacts, wrapped and unwrapped, labeled and in jars.

On stacked shelves lining the sides of the ovalish cavern there were stacks of plastic-bag encased papers and smaller artifacts.

Seated with his back to Brendan as he quickly glanced in was Archie, shoulders overlapping the edges of the rickety chair.

The Magma who had "taken care" of Brendan stood to the side of him, and the ominous claydol blocked off the Aqua's softly growling mightyenas in a corner. Archie had a hand on the pokeballs on his belt, but he'd seen what foes lay in his enemies' possession.

A man stood at the head of the table, Shelley's neck constricted in the crook of his arm, pressing the flat edge of a black carbon steel dagger up into her rib cage.

This man is worth the time it takes to describe him.

The light was dim even with the crystallized ceiling aiding its distribution. It was at least clear that this man had red hair, a bit past shoulder length, slicked back from his face and flipping up at the ends. His minimalistic suit jacket reached his knees; it was a shade of deep, bloody coral, zipped up asymmetrically. The collar was flipped up but not pretentiously so.

An "m" insignia decorated a splash of dark grey on his chest.

Most of all, ambition simmered about the corners of his lips, surety about the creases about his eyes.

"I don't believe it," Maxie, the leader of Magma, said, his grip staying tight. He could feel Shelley's struggling inhales and exhales. His voice was smooth and his consonants had a soft kind of click to them.

Archie half-stood as his admin clawed at Maxie's firm grip. The Magma leader stood six foot two, a head above Shelley. Archie was even shorter than Shelley.

"Hey!" the Aqua leader barked at Maxie. "Let her go and I'll tell!"

"You'll tell now," Maxie said, lifting his chin and starting to slice horizontally with the knife, slitting Shelley's striped shirt. He cut off her noise of alarm. "Where is the blue orb?"

"I don't know!" Archie yelled, slamming the table, knocking some artifacts off it.

Maxie didn't pause his dagger stroked as it drew blood and Shelley scrabbled at his imprisoning arm and kicked against him.

"I swear, I don't know! That's what this whole mission was on! It's with the legendary water pokemon and we don't know where it is! Aren't you supposed to enforcing the law? What's cutting up a girl got to do with that?!"

The mightyenas started barking.

"Stop lying about the integral part of your plans," Maxie said, beginning another cut on her abdomen. He released his pressure on her windpipe long enough for a short scream to escape. He knew it didn't hurt badly enough to deserve a scream, but context was everything. Context was Maxie's philosophy.

"I'm not lying, yo!" Archie exploded madly, rushing for Maxie. But Courtney sic'd her golbat on him and it dug its fangs into the lapel of his black shirt, dragging him back. "I'm not, we need it but we don't have it, we were already in Slateport to sabotage the recovery dive but it failed, the orb's somewhere underwater and we don't know where! Only Devon knows!"

Maxie paused his work. Blood wet Shelley's shirt. She had stopped her vain kicking.

"What will you do if I let you go?" Maxie asked, raising his dagger away from the Aqua admin slightly.

"We're not gonna up and abandon everything!" Archie recoiled. "But if you stop getting in our way, you won't get any trouble from us!"

Maxie laughed shortly, loudly.

"That is an incentive," he said, loosening his grip so Shelley could breathe properly. "Alright, shoo."

"What?" Archie said, getting up but staying put. "What - what are your plans? What's all this for - not stopping criminals, or you'd be shuttin' yourself down! You said you had the league backing you!" Archie pronounced the last statement with as much of a sneer as he dared, which wasn't much, as he felt the flapping of the golbat close behind him.

Maxie ignored the taunt.

"You may go and try to find wherever your gang members are."

Shelley made to leave but his grip tightened again.

The golbat that had latched onto Archie's collar threw him off the chair towards the entrance. Archie scrambled up and realized Shelley wasn't going to be coming with.

"Ain't-" he started.

"If I hear word of us, ever, she dies. Go now, or you won't be able to," Maxie said. There was panic in Shelley's eyes, as the claydol moved aside and let the now whimpering mightyena rush out of the room. The Magma's two mightyena laid down at the back of the room.

All at once, the other two golbat joined the biggest one and they flapped around Archie and started biting and clawing at him. Yelling, Archie fled blindly, hand protecting his eyes.

...

Brendan was unsure if the Magma would exit his way or not.

His heart thumped against his ribcage. If they did, there was no way he'd escape. When he'd peeked in, he'd seen at the back of the small cavern was an opening to another passage. The one he was in curved back around that way.

Taking a deep breath, Brendan turned down the dark rocky hall, moving quietly and quickly for fear he wouldn't get to the other side before Magma left. He had a mind to somehow liberate the Aqua with the red hair.

Maxie let go of Shelley's neck and quickly clamped a hand over her mouth as he sheathed his dagger with the other hand.

Courtney started sorting through the shelves and the artifacts on the table.

"Now now, shush and tell me why you're about to scream," Maxie said, putting the Aqua admin in a chair and slowly letting his hand off her mouth. She protectively wrapped an arm around her abdomen and glared at Maxie fearfully as he walked around the table to face her.

"You-you cut me," Shelley exclaimed viciously.

"Pardon me, but it was for effect," Maxie said. "Merely surface wounds. I will bandage them up as soon as we can agree."

"On what?" Shelley curled over in her seat, refusing to look at Maxie.

"How much is your paycheck from the hopeful gangster?"

"Archie?"

"Who else?" The corners of Maxie's lips lifted a bit.

Shelley sniffed. Maxie waited amiably for her answer. Everything was going smoothly so far.

"Why does it matter?" she said after a bit, looking sideways at the tall Magma leader. "You aren't going to bribe me into something, are you?"

"Yes."

"I'm not joining you."

"Why would you not?" Maxie feigned surprise. "But that's not what I have in mind. I am going to hire you as my prisoner."

"What?" Shelley gave him a look of half-disbelief, half-confusion.

"Your paycheck?" Maxie prompted.

"€12000 a month," Shelley said staunchly.

"Oh!" Maxie gasped with a laugh. "I didn't know your figure comes from the ramen diet! I may have to consider it -"

"It's for a cause."

Maxie was right in front of her before she could look surprised, fingers pulling up her chin so she was forced to look in his dark, dark brown eyes.

"Do not call such a straggle of troublemaking peasants a cause," Maxie said.

"We're protesting the Mainland's power. It's called civil disobedience."

Maxie withdrew from her personal space. "And has Archie ever been to the Mainland?"

"No," Shelley said, watching Courtney flip through old papers and bits of pots.

"Has Archie seen how they plan a region? How they control every detail? How ... How they politically tower over all the regions put together?"

"No, but he knows what they do and so do the Aquas."

"Mm. Well, let him continue on his fool's errand. Now, come."

"I ... never accepted," Shelley said, drawing out the "I". "So I think-"

"€12000 a week," Maxie counter-offered, a certainty in the tilt of his head. Shelley paused as she was getting up. "Alright, come, Courtney. Leave all as it was," Maxie said.

"Nothing on the blue orb. The document is probably being stored at the research center in Rustoboro," the petite woman said. She had a surprisingly deep kind of voice.

"We don't need to know where it is."

Courtney gave a tight frown as she came up behind Shelley. "You were just asking Archie-"

"Context, dear, context," Maxie corrected her

."There was this, though - a drawing of one of the pokemon," Courtney said, holding up a hefty slab of carved stone, iron oxide coating weathered away in places. Shelley squinted at it, but Maxie started walking out the cavern.

"Thank you, but I want to be surprised, Courtney," Maxie said. The admin trailed her fingers across the ancient carving and then followed Maxie out.

With a low, rocky humming, the claydol trailed the three as the mightyenas paced alongside their master.

Shelley went sandwiched in the middle. €48000 a month was decent pay. An electric lantern Maxie had taken from the cavern lit the way.

"Does it still need bandaging?" he said, looking back at Shelley.

"- yes," Shelley managed, as she suddenly noticed her cuts again. _What am I doing with this - this man?_ But it didn't really hurt, and she kept walking.


	13. And They're Off

The passage the Magmas and their prize had taken opened up onto a rocky cliff looming above the river, which became the waterfall in its course. The peak of Mt Chimney lay south and was clearer from this distance. The sky opened up in a storybook blue above a distinguishable layer of ash and soot that spread from Mt. Chimney over the blur of grass outside of Fallarbor.

There was a moderate wind which whipped Maxie's hair back and forth, not to mention Shelley's.  
The magma grunts who had escorted the Aquas and scientists back to Fallarbor were ready and waiting, mounted on golbats. Shelley watched as Maxie talked briefly with the hooded, stocky man who seemed to be his second-in-command. That man nodded to the grunts, who took off, yanking the reigns of their golbats' harnesses this way and that. Shelley had grudging admiration for that feat. The bats flew awkwardly in zigzagged paths, but the Magmas managed to stay seated; something the Aquas had collectively given up on. Instead, they chose to surf on whatever waterway would get then to their destination the fastest.

Her captor released a crobat and affixed a harness around it deftly, then motioned for her as all his underlings took off but Courtney.

"Where are we going?" Shelley said, having to yell over the wind. She wasn't going to go someplace without a washroom to herself and civilization close by. That would spell trouble.

"Close to Mauville, come," Maxie beckoned. Shelley stood where she was, fighting the wind for control of her hair and losing. Her thick, natural curls buffeted around her face and her shirt.

"What?" she hollered back at Maxie, clawing her hair to one side as she ripped off her bandana to tie the mess off in a ponytail.

"We are leaving," Maxie said imperatively.

Shelley suddenly wondered what she was supposed to ride on: the crobat probably, but could it fly in such a wind? Now the hefty salary didn't seem quite so tempting. Maxie abruptly turned to face the cave exit as someone came dashing out. Shelley whipped her head around too, sending her hair into another uproar.

It was the kid from the Slateport shipyard who'd stopped them from getting the sub parts - well, you know, detained them long enough so some rangers came and fished them out of the facility. Glasses, floppy white hat, black track pants. He couldn't have been older than 16.

Behind him came Archie, who stopped and took in the scene.

"Shelley! C'mon!" the Aqua leader shouted at her, glancing at the two remaining Magmas. Shelley hesitantly stepped forward, surprised to see Archie had come back for her . . .

...

Brendan had bumped into Archie on the way out, who had immediately proposed they work together (probably since the Aqua leader didn't have any pokemon and would otherwise be creamed).

At least the other Magmas weren't there yet, Brendan thought as he released Swell and his swampert, who called out challengingly at the crobat and golbat of the Magmas.

"Let's battle!" Brendan yelled at Maxie as the wind tore at his windbreaker and hat.

Courtney looked at her boss as the other admin took off.

Brendan glanced back at Archie, who was urgently talking to Shelley.

Maxie shouted an order at his crobat and Courtney at her golbat.  
The two bats quickly swooped down on Brendan's two pokemon, a wing attack each.

"Swampert- muddy water! Swell, aerial ace the crobat!" Brendan commanded them. His swampert let out a guttural roar and unleashed a wave of energy that rippled through her whole body. Showoff. The wall of water sprayed out wide, squarely nailing the golbat, but only catching the crobat's wingtips. The four-winged bat was fast. It zipped around and sniped in on the giant mud fish pokemon with a sizzling sludge bomb. The swampert deflected a direct hit, but Brendan saw the energy fizzle across the thick blue skin of his pokemon and knew she was poisoned. Swell was keeping golbat pinned with repeated aerial aces. Brendan noticed suddenly as he pulled an antidote out of his bag that only Courtney was left commanding his foes. Maxie? - Maxie's camerupt came barrelling out of the cave entrance, knocking over Archie and Shelley as they were about to flee the scene. As Archie stumbled up and then fell again, obviously dazed, Maxie grabbed Shelley with one arm and recalled his camerupt with the other. The Aqua admin starting screaming and pounding at her captor, but much good it did.

The crobat zoned in with almost supersonic cries that made Brendan's skin crawl as he bent over his swampert, squirting the antidote into her open mouth. (She hated taking medicine orally and kept jerking her giant maw this way and that as Brendan practically had to stick his head in to prise it open.)  
The sludge bomb fizzled over his jacket as harmless energy.

Brendan stood to get out of the way as his swampert vengefully pumped a transenergy beam of water into the sky at the crobat, which came screeching down.

"Heal it!" Maxie yelled at Courtney as he dragged the spitting Shelley along. Courtney glanced back at her golbat, which was barely staying aloft under Swell's relentless aerial attacks, then ran to the fallen crobat with a revive tablet and a hyper potion. As Swampert growled threateningly at the Magma admin, Brendan took a couple dizzy steps backwards. _What the? Sludge bomb from the crobat - that's definitely not even a transenergy attack_ - He stood still and immediately felt better.

As the crobat dragged its leathery, softly furred wings off the rocky ground, Courtney rushed back over to her now fainted golbat.

"Swampert! Don't let that crobat get away!" Brendan yelled as the bat hopped towards Maxie, ready for flight - Shelley had gone limp and she was lifted on first.

Swampert released another muddy water attack, soaking Maxie and knocking the crobat over. With a furious glint in its small eyes, the crobat rushed at the swampert - but it didn't use any attack, instead latched onto swampert's thick, rubbery head crests with its fangs, clawing at its skin. Swampert bellowed in confusion.

"You-" Brendan started at Maxie. "Training your pokemon to fight - training your pokemon as killers-" He didn't know what to do, tackle Maxie or try and get the crobat off his pokemon - he'd never thought of breaking the law, teaching Swampert how to draw blood - which was now running down her flat face as the crobat screamed and clawed away at her. She shot a useless muddy water over open ground.

"Get back here, Cro!" Maxie commanded his pokemon tightly.

Swell blazed in, screeching louder than the bat, and gripped its furry back in its curved talons, hauling it off Swampert with a few powerful wingbeats. Swampert pawed at her head uselessly, making low moaning sounds. Brendan recalled her and ran a few steps after Swell, who seemed to have gone wild on the crobat, tossing it into the air and throwing one burst of wing energy at it after another. Pulses of dizziness hit Brendan. As soon as he stopped and yelled at Swell to come down, though, he felt fine.

The crobat thudded to the ground, exhausted, twitching. Courtney, who had mounted her golbat in readiness, was commanded by Maxie to get his damned crobat back up.

"Swell, swell," Brendan murmured as his bird stalked around madly, ruffling its feathers. He managed to corral it, each step sending a pounding dizziness through his whole body - it wasn't like pain, it was like a sort of utter weakness - and reached up to stroke its head feathers. It focused on him. His status clip said it had used a lot of PP, was down about half of its HP - but it also said it was poisoned, which it wasn't. The level flickered on and off from 46 to random numbers, 1-100.

"Ok, that's good for today," Brendan said to Swell. "Leave these weirdos be, just chill for a bit ..." He recalled Swell and turned to see Maxie taking off with Shelley on the crobat. Where was the other-

A jet of air swooshed over him and snapped his hand back, and Swell's pokeball was in Courtney's hand.

"HEY!" Brendan yelled, dashing after the golbat-rider, who reigned her hovering steed up short at the edge of the cliff with a glance at the ascending Maxie.

The disorienting weakness hammered through Brendan as he sprinted. It was hardly 70 m, and besides the pulsing dizziness he was perfectly fine, but inexplicably he was suddenly crashing to the ground, rocks splicing bloody cuts in his hands as he blacked out - _Swell_ -


	14. Flying

Perfectly flat-bottomed clouds dotted the sky, blooming upwards in misty puffs. May was having the time of her life. She'd cautiously tried a couple low laps on Peli, but found he flew slowly enough that she wasn't in danger of falling. Of course, she had visited the licensing office in Fortree to pay junior insurance; she'd called Professor Birch just to make sure he was alright with the whole flying thing. Her dad trusted her.

Even though it was definitely not recommended to fly to a city you had never visited before, May was so done with tall grass and boggy weather. So done. She hollered as Peli dipped and glided through the air for the pure escape of it all, hanging on tight with every part of her body.

After 15 minutes or so, the main island of Hoenn was behind them, as May could see through the breaks in the clouds that flew past below them. Ahead stretched the glimmering, rippling Sea of Hoenn. And beyond the horizon north was the Mainland, but it was still far out of sight. Closer, a mottled green dot sat amid the waves. Brown patches of rocks and underwater rock formations breached the sea's surface as well, so May double-checked her map and where everything was behind her. Yep, she was sure that was Mossdeep: island research facility (Hoenn was a very scientific province; because of Devon's affluence, the economy was built on their fields) and 7th gym.

_Wonder where Brendan is. He'd want to be here. He'd like flying, _May thought, feeling peaceful for the first time since Norman's gym. She could probably get along with Brendan if he'd smarten up; especially on a trip like this, with the wind whipping ecstatically past your cheeks and the murmur of the sea below.


	15. Below Normal

The floor was industrial grey tile. Brendan woke up in dim light. There was a strip of fluorescents in the bare room. His stat clip was beeping like crazy.

Sitting up from a sprawled position on the floor, he jerked his backpack out from under him. His back was sore, but not sore enough to indicate that he'd been lying there for more than several hours. He didn't bother trying the grey metal door; after a moment of uncertainty he figured the Magmas must've taken him somewhere. _And my pokemon too_, he thought, digging through his yellow backpack. They had left all his TMs and potions - and yes, trainer card - with him but taken his pokemon. _Guess you can't break a metal door with a paralyze heal. _He stood up and cried out at the shock of surging weakness that brought him back down as he took a step.

"I am screwed," he hissed to himself. "Plain energy. Sludge bomb. It's not possible for a pokemon to poison humans ..." In early trainer's school, that had been one of those free-marks questions on the exams, the no-brainer any moron could get right.

He sat there for a second, feeling weak - not weak as in hungry, just plain powerless. He popped the battery out of the annoying stat clip - which said "PSN" under stat and garbled pixels for everything else - and stuffed it in his bag.

Then logic struck and he dug through the big pocket, coming up with a full restore. "Yeah," he ridiculed himself as he twisted open the squeeze pump. "Yeah right." He held it at arm's length for a minute. Well, he was the only trainer he knew who liked pokeblocks - something he'd discovered by accident back in school. Apparently they tasted like mineral gravel and sour grass, but he'd liked them and thought they'd tasted pretty good, better than his mom's cookies at any rate. He'd used to go over to May's after school for her dad's snacks.

Brendan choked the grooved plastic pump in his grip and gulped down the couple tablespoons that squirted out, quickly sticking it back in his bag, as if someone could see and make fun of him. Tasted like a watered-down, sparkling-wine flavour he wasn't sure if he liked or not.

He didn't feel anything, but he stood up and cautiously took a step. Nothing.

He banged on the metal door after ensuring it was locked. The cuts on his hands were mostly scabbed up.

"Let me out!" he yelled. "I'm awake! Gimme my pokemon and let me-"

The door swung open and Brendan jerked backwards. It was the black-haired girl in the long, slit leather skirt.

"Come on," she said imperiously. Brendan shouldered his bag and followed her out into a cool, clean and gray hallway. Fluorescents ran along the center of the low ceiling. He glanced up and down the passage but there was no certain way of escape; anyways he needed his pokemon.

"So, where'd you take me? Are we going to grab my pokemon?" he asked the Magma girl. She was shorter but older and didn't reply as they came into a larger room with electrical equipment bolted in along one side. Stepping on a flat blue floorplate, automatic doors slid open and she led him through.

_How big is this place_, Brendan thought, taking his time to look around each room they entered. They were all very same-y. The route Courtney took was full of turns and confident backtracking, often to reach a particular floorplate. Everything was silence save a dull electrical background whirr.

Finally they arrived at a set of doors where Courtney stepped aside and motioned Brendan in. The doors opened and Brendan entered.

Maxie was waiting for Brendan at a modest fold-up table. Four towering generators gave off garbled thrumming and glowed with power surging through them. The room was very bright; the ceiling was wired with a grid of obscenely strong lights.

Brendan sat down opposite Maxie.

"So, where are we?" the kid asked, backpack shouldered like he was ready to run.

"We're underground," Maxie said, dressed in the usual, hair as usual. "Now, please tell me what you were doing at Meteor Falls."

"Watching you slice up that Aqua and kidnap her," Brendan said.

"Before we rescued you?" Maxie asked.

"Rescued?" Brendan laughed.

"Yes. Did anyone know where you were when you ... hmmm ... Wiped out on top of the cliff?"

"No."

"Then there you have it. So, what was your intention in intervening? To save Aqua?" Maxie offered a small, sympathetic smile at the last phrase.

"No, I was seeing what they were up to. They took some scientists from the Meteor Lab. What were you up to?"

"What do you think?" Maxie crossed his arms. He wasn't going to try and scare the kid off with the endorsed-by-the-League line; that would probably only give him the idea to go tell them. If he was ever let go.

"Making trouble," Brendan shrugged.

"Hm. What sort of trouble?"

"You wanted to know where the blue orb was."

"I did ask Archie that."

"Look, what's it going to take for you to give me back my pokemon and let me go?" the boy said impatiently.

"I know you have intervened in Aqua's plans before. You are a liability if you won't reveal exactly what your goals are."

"I'm just a kid."

"Yes, a kid with a level 67 swampert," Maxie laughed, amused. "Alright, go back to your room," Maxie waved Brendan off. It was no expense to him to keep the kid locked up for a while. He was on his experience period, and wouldn't be missed for at least a few days.

Brendan got up unsurely, not expecting to be dismissed so quickly.

"Wait, I -" he started, and then a golbat grabbed his jacket and hauled him through the door. Ok, he'd expected that he'd be able to maneuver his way out of the Magmas' grasp, hurt or not, but obviously Maxie wanted something from him he couldn't get by means of violence - maybe he just wanted him to stay there, safely not spreading any news of Magma.

He scrambled along with the golbat herding him from behind, Courtney leading. They were going back the way they came.

When they got to a larger room with three automatic doors leading out, Brendan tore himself away from the golbat and bolted. He hammered a floor plate and dashed through the doors that swished open, agonizingly slowly as it seemed.

"Hey!" barked Courtney from behind as he took off down the hallway. This complex was beginning to feel claustrophobic.

He bounded off a floor plate in a narrow room and dashed through whatever door opened, skirting more flashing consoles. He heard the smooth screeching of the golbat echoing around somewhere behind him. Taking a left then a right, he passed a Magma, following a hallway with small windows on the sides. He needed to get to some sort of headquarters, his pokemon were probably being held there. Making a few quick decisions at junctions where he thought he heard more than one pursuer, he eventually burst into a large lab room, equipped with all sorts of machines and tubes and little platforms and hulking scanners. The people working in there turned to look at Brendan as he quickly scanned the room for sight of his pokeballs; not there. He whirled and kept pounding down the halls.

By now he was sure there was more than one person, and pokemon, chasing him, and he slowed his pace to try and choose the best way. He cautiously crept down a carpeted hallway as the noises of his pursues seemed to fade. All was quiet and there was a single room at the end of the hall. Instead of a floor plate, there was a lever on the wall. No turning back, Brendan decided as shouting and pokemon calls - mightyena barks - reached his ears. He pulled the lever and the doors jerked apart.


	16. Blasted Out

Luxe red love seats sat in the middle of the room, with a coffee bar and a fridge. Some sort of R&R room. A map pinned on one wall caught Brendan's attention briefly. The shipyard in Slateport was marked, traced to the ocean around Sootopolis. Just above Sootopolis an X slashed and the words 'C Origin' were scrawled, along with a date two days from now. There were a couple pins stuck in different places the Aquas had been seen, along with dates. It took two seconds for Brendan to file that away, and then he saw there were pokeballs, rolling around on one couch. He took a closer look; yep, one had the fire seal he'd put on Swell's pokeball. Problem was, there were more than just his. Brendan thought of taking everything. Bad idea?_ Hm, nope_. He grabbed all 6 and stuffed them in his bag, bolting out again. He narrowly agoided colliding with a mightyena and barrelled ast, making a sharp turn right to avoid its owner.

Now, getting out.

He ran through several passages, but avoiding Magmas which now seemed to approach him from every corner disoriented him.

Eventually he skidded into a deceivingly familiar room and found no floor plate to open his escape route. _Shit_.

Courtney charged in, flanked by mightyenas, and three grunts behind her.

"Give the balls back!" Courtney shouted.

Brendan choked on laughter. Somewhere in his running he'd managed to unzip his backpack and throw the pokeballs in, but now he grabbed one out as the mightyenas leaped on him.

Hot fur smothered him and claws caught on his jacket and he could barely hit the pokeball release before he realized this was bad. The mightyenas dug in through his jacket to his skin, snarling, and yanked Brendan across the floor.

Flashing out of the pokeball came Swell. The bird took a sharp look at the situation and hit one of the mightyenas with an aerial ace. Brendan kicked at the wolves and one jumped off him to hit Swell with a crunching pincer of dark energy.

"No! Drag that thing out of the sky!" Courtney ordered her wolves. "Send out your pokemon!" She turned furiously on the other grunts who quickly started into action.

Brendan heaved the other mightyena off him and stumbled back as it came roaring at him again.

"Swell!" Brendan said in panic as it screeched, a mightyena able to grab its tail feathers and yank it down; the ceiling was too low for evasiveness.

He grunted as the other wolf catapulted itself onto him, knocking him over, and it snapped at his jacket for a grip. Brendan struggled over onto his stomach, kicking away the yowling mightyena. As it tore one of his skate shoes off, he reached his bag and released another pokemon.

A flurry of two golbats and a camerupt were released by the other Magmas, and they made after Brendan's Xense, a nuzleaf well on its way to becoming a shiftry. It pounded its chest with a wooden, knocking cry and blasted a clawing haze of dark energy at the two golbats, which reeled backward. However the camerupt was at a large advantage as it bore down on Xense, fiery energy gathering around its stubby legs.

Swell extricated itself from the mightyena as some of its dark blue tail feathers drifted to the floor and bowled Xense out of the way just in time. The camerupt went smashing into the back wall.

"Mightyenas, get him! Get his bag!"

"Golbat, confuse ray!"

"Golbat, aerial ace!"

Another Magma entered and began ducking her way through to melee to try and get to the camerupt and the others yelled at her and someone released a slugma.

The mightyena got its jaws in Brendan's jacket and started to drag him to Courtney, but he snagged his bag with his socked foot and passed it up to his grasp and somehow managed to release Swampert. She came out with her signature bellow and looked straight at the Magmas, who froze.

"Surf!" Brendan managed, throwing himself around the mightyena's neck and holding on tight as it thrashed. The mightyena, enraged, twisted wildly and pounced back on top of him, but Swell swooped in and dragged the wolf off Brendan.

Xense was hit by a succession of wing attacks from the golbats, hooting hollowly.

With a bellow that filled the room, Swampert released a surf attack that blasted against the wall, drenching all the Magmas except for Courtney who jumped out of the way.

As the slugma squished around the room confusedly, the Magma on the other side commanded the camerupt to attack Swampert.

"Idiot!" Courtney screamed as the camerupt came charging at the swampert, preparing a body slam attack.

"Swampert! Muddy water behind you!" Brendan called as he dashed to his bag and rooted through it for another pokeball, seeing Xense had fainted and now the two golbats were haranguing Swell, who was trying to distance itself far enough away from the bats to get a good shot at them. The mightyena snapping at Swell's already damaged tail feathers prevented that.

Swampert whirled around just in time to shoulder the body slam attack as a flash of energy from the camerupt produced an impact field between the two weighty creatures. Swampert dropped back down on all fours, but then pushed herself up and released a shining field of brown energy at the camerupt. The attack was a sucker-punch to the fire-type and it collapsed, but now behind Swampert was a claydol, which blasted her with a fully-charged hyper beam. Just as the golbats beat Swell out of the air, Brendan released the next pokeball.

It was not his pokemon.

It was taller than the ceiling and so its steel-armoured horns pierced the fluorescent panels as it materialized out of a flash of light.

Larger than Swampert, it stood eight feet tall, grounded on clawed, badger-like feet. It wasn't afraid to rear on its hind legs, for its thick grey body was sheathed in panelled layers of iron-infused protective skin. Steel blue eyes gleamed out from its shining head crest, which acted as its helmet; a fearsome tail swung back and forth, knocking Brendan's feet out from under him. Snapping its underbite jaws of, quite literally, steel, together, it charged, dragging its horned head through the ceiling and the inches of rock above it, letting a grating, scintillating cry. Swampert dropped on all fours and growled haltingly. The Magmas were too stunned to move but then suddenly Courtney shrilly forced them out the door and, once they were out, fairly broke the floor plate trying to close the door.

The aggron gathered a festering purple energy about its chest and claws and charged at Swampert.

"No," Brendan gasped, all his breath taken from him. The memories ripped through his mind and rendered him powerless to move. It had been eight years since he'd seen an aggron.

His surroundings were forest, and the aggron's figure wavered and shook as there were suddenly a whole herd of them, a herd of them with deep wounds as if they'd been fighting among each other. They charged at his mudkip -_ no - where was dad - no, _Brendan screamed, mudkip! An impact knocked him off his feet from behind as he tried to get to mudkip, and suddenly a pain like he'd never known sliced through his head and there was a rushing blast from ahead that swept backwards through him, and mudkip's cry, except it sounded much like the cry of a older, evolved swampert. Blood ran wet into his eyes. His dad's yells echoed faintly from somewhere else as Brendan fought to regain vision, but something was wrong. The creatures stampeded around him, their thuds giving an underwater sound and his vision went darker and darker as he hyperventilated, _dad help me_, he was gasping as his dad was yelling in pain and he couldn't move - _dear Arceus -_

...

"Sweee! Sweeee!" the bird called urgently to Swampert as it was knocked flat by the dragon rush attack. Swampert fled from the aggron in terror, towards Swell. The aggron plowed through the mightyenas and golbats and the slugma and the fainted camerupt, throwing them tugged the stricken Swampert out of the way. The aggron slammed into the back wall just as it pivoted, and blew through the wall and the rock and into open air. Sunlight beamed in.

"Sweeee!" Swell called, flapping in front of the aggron, instructing Swampert to save itself. The bird narrowly dodged an iron tail attack from the aggron, which left a trench in the floor. The metallic call of the aggron vibrated the room. Swell swooped through the morning light and grabbed its unmoving master and his bag off the ground. It crowed in pain as a rock attack blasted into it and it was flung out into open air, who knows where above water. Swampert, treading water, caught the bird on her back. Swell released its burden and flapped back up to the hole made in the side of the rock, but the aggron was there and ready, and sent it blasting back out. Xense was still in there, unable to save itself.

The pokemon fled directionlessly, plowing through the water, under a bridge and away from the houses lining the near shore.


	17. The Twins and more Trouble

"Peeeeeeel!" The gull swooped down in wide, dizzying circles. It had taken an hour to reach Mossdeep, a picturesque island home to around 15,000. Peli landed next to the Pokemon center and May stumbled off, not realizing how tired her thighs and calves were from holding on. The buildings seemed big after viewing them in miniature.

The roads were by no means made for automobiles, merely packed dirt. The island was small enough that you could walk anywhere you pleased within an hour. The main commodity of Mossdeep was wailmer meat and producing luxe fabric from the banyan-like yannan trees that grew in spacious groves around the island. Although there was a large space exploration research center on the eastern side of the island, most of the island had a farming flair to it.

It was evening and May paid for her room at the center with credits. She walked around the western side town and bought some wailmer jerky at a stall that was just closing up. People wore simple clothes, plain colors with the slash of a woven belt or strappy sandal here and there. Some gave May smiles. They were probably accustomed to traveling trainers coming to challenge twins Tate and Liza, the gym leaders of the area.

...

May found she hadn't gotten a good sleep the next morning. She was excited, partly. The other half of her was stewing or something. A restless feeling, a sort of empty feeling bugged her; maybe it was because she still thought of Rosa and the silence of the Nav. She'd gotten one call from a girl at school who just wanted to brag about beating Wattson and had stopped bragging when May had politely informed her that the 7th badge was in her own grasp._ Once I beat the League_, May thought, driving herself on with the open-ended thought.

She had to wait outside the gym, munching on some cornbread with kelpsy jam. The town was pretty hushed for 9:44. A few people made their way down the street. Most of the town went north to work in the big fabric warehouses, from which steamy smoke rose, and the smell of freshly scalded yannan fabric if you got close enough.

A kid with straight dark purple hair wearing a fedora came to lounge outside the gym doors. May asked him if he was planning to challenge the gym.

"Yeah," he said, and they battled right then and there.

May got to show off her newly evolved kirlia. It was taller and more lithe now - a fully-grown gallade. She'd decided to just call it Gallade. Along with her numel, they handily defeated an azurill and a swalot.

They headed to the Pokemon center to heal up. Staying pretty amiable, they went back to the gym as it was opening. He had come from different region, but was here to experience Hoenn, and mostly described his previous gym victories as they walked.

Inside the gym, May was met with a maze of flashing conveyor belts laid out on the floor, different coloured arrows on each one. She could see the two gym leaders on the far side of the gym, but it was going to be a pain to figure everything out.

"Good luck, I'm going this way," the kid said, and stepped on a green conveyor belt, after they had both scanned their trainer cards at the entrance machine.

"Thanks," May said, meaning it. She stepped on a red conveyor belt which took her quite rapidly to her first gym trainer, thinking all the while after her new acquaintance, _now why can't Brendan be like that_?

"So, first of the day," yawned the older man. _Probably too out of shape to starch fabric and had to take this young-person's job_, May thought mildly as he smacked and released a baltoy.

May ended up at the beginning five times, choosing the wrong conveyor belt. She caught glimpses of the kid's gym leader battle as she had to face one gym trainer after another. Eventually she'd fought them all, but ended up back at the beginning.

"Argh!" she steamed to herself as the kid came back down. His expression was curiously unreadable. "Did you make it?" she asked.

"Nah," he replied. "I need some dark moves, or water moves. Here I go again," he waved as he left the gym to heal up his pokemon.

Well, May thought, certain of the way this time. Gallade knows shadow ball, and Peli knows surf. This should be easy.

It was, once May actually got to the twins. They were smart battlers, and used stat-changing moves and items to their advantage, but May's carefully chosen attacks won out in the end. She had learned if you knocked the foe's health down too low, the gym leaders would panic and heal them. It was best to choose less powerful attacks and make them think they had the upper hand first.

When May walked out, there was a smile on her face and seven badges jangling on her clip.

No one commented, if they noticed, as May wandered around the indoor fashion center, eyeing some particularly gorgeous sari-like dresses. There were scarves, sheets, shirts, skirts, suits, towels, stuffed toys, the whole selection. She lost an hour or so and came close to buying a really nice dark purple dress, but decided against it, just in case she would critically need money later.

What else to do? It was only 10:56. Maybe check out the space exploration research center, SERC. She trained her gaze up at its channeled peak that reminded her vaguely of a rocket ready to be launched.

The day was surprisingly warm, or maybe it seemed warm because of the humidity of the island weather. May was sweating lightly as she hiked up the stairs to the looming center. No signs signalled any restriction to who could enter, so after a moment's pause she entered the sweetly cool interior - only to be confronted by a couple Aqua grunts.

"You again!" May exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"None of your business!" one of the grunts said back at her.

May released Gallade and Tropius. "Battle me," she said. The grunts glanced at each other as if remembering her pokemon last time at route 119. "Well, are you going to let me through or are you going to battle?"

Gallade made a slashing motion and whooped challengingly. Tropius stomped.

"Ok, uh, go Golby!"

"Go my corphish!"

Gallade executed a powerful wave of psychic energy at the golbat, and tropius endured a swirling whirlpool attack from the crab pokemon as it spread its leafy wings, gathering energy.

"Golby, wing attack!" one grunt ordered.

"Gallade, psybeam!"

Gallade was faster and shot a focused, accurate beam of mental energy at the bat, which fainted, just as tropius released the bright, twisting torrent of solarbeam energy at the poor corphish. May pushed past the grunts and her pokemon followed.

Although May wouldn't know it, this facility was even more high-tech than Fallarbor's Meteor Lab. This space resource center was affiliated closely with the Mainland and therefore had a high rank of prestige in the region.

May found it in much the same situation as the Weather Institute had been. She climbed up several deserted floors filled with state-of-the-art equipment and wide enclosed spaces and cylinders and faux-control-panels.

She was about to go up to the seventh floor from the eerily dark sixth floor when the door to the stairs opened and out trampled a whole team of Aquas, led by a sketchy-looking bald guy.

"Let's get outta here!" the Aquas were howling in one form or the other, but in the dark they bumbled over cords and wires and crashed into computer desks.

"What-" May started. More people fled out from the stairwell, scientist-looking types in protective gear. She didn't move for fear of tripping over something. Suddenly, someone but the lights and everyone mass-stampeded for the stairwell. May jogged after them, glancing back at the flight to the next level - but if the researchers were fleeing, it was probably a good idea.

The panicked crowd fled down the next three levels in a furious conglomeration, but didn't have time to get outside before a deep BOOM sounded from up above along with faint tinkling of shattered glass.

A man wearing protective goggles and dressed in a finely woven sweater with some sort of communication device attached to his ear picked himself up.

"You criminals," he accused the Aquas, directing his words at the snake-like bald admin, who had a steamy tattoo of a gorebyss and a huntail patterned on his arm, "You will be prosecuted for this! Have you any idea the importance of the research project you just effectively destroyed? It's the pioneering effort into sustainable rocket fuel-"

"Yeah, yeah, we didn't get what we wanted anyways," the admin said in a twangy hiss. "Now let's-"

The door banged open from below and Archie pounded in along with a few grunts. The admin whirled around in surprise as the lead researcher was talking on his Nav, calling the rangers.

"Did you get-" Archie started.

The admin gestured vaguely with his head and arm. "Not quite what, y'know."

"What are you all standin around for? Beat it! Hustle!" Archie yelled at his crew, and they all fled down the stairs.

"I'll follow them," May said to no one really and took off with Gallade and Tropius in tow. "HEY!" she yelled at Archie as the Aquas fled past the reception desk.

The faux-posh leader did a double-take, and looked much more than a little annoyed, but to his credit he opened the doors and hustled his crew through. May was frozen for a second then bolted after them. "Gallade, get him!" she told the lean psychic-type, and he took the lead going outside.

All the grunts were fleeing towards a pod of wailmer bobbing around by the shore, but someone was holding Archie and his admin up just outside the doors. Well, so much for what Courtney said about Magma keeping Aqua in check, May thought as the grunts dived off the short, sandy cliff, into the water where they scrambled on their wailmer.

"Don't get into this, lil' chick," Archie said threateningly.

"I suggest you don't get into it, either," May said, looking at the man who was confronting them. "Steven!"

"May! Imagine! Help me battle?" the man with the spiked silver hair said.

"Yo, actually we'll be going," Archie said, shoving May out of the way, but Steven whipped out a pokeball with some impressive throwing-arm skills and out came a looming metagross. Archie backpedaled. May gaped for a moment at the four-legged, spiderish metal pokemon; its dark blue steel body was almost level with her, but the joints of the planed limbs that held it firmly into the dirt jutted above her head. May joined Steven and recalled Tropius, leaving Gallade on the field.

Archie, incensed, released a walrein, which looked like a worthy competitor for the metagross. The walrus pokemon was huge and stocked with HP. Archie sneered and his admin released a mightyena.

"We win, you tell us what you wanted with the rocket fuel," Steven said, appearing undaunted. May noticed he seemed more put-together than usual, wearing a loose green shirt and slim khakis, his hair combed down a bit. It was so hard to place his age. May tugged her attention to the issue at hand.

"Bad choice, Archie," Steven said with that bit of an educated accent he had. "Meteor mash, Metagross!"

"Walrein, ice beam - on the Gallade!" Archie ordered his pokemon.

"So you do know something," Steven said surprisedly.

"And mightyena, uh, crunch!" the admin said. "The metagross!"

_At least he's not pummelling Gallade with that_, May thought. "Psycho cut the mightyena," she told her pokemon.

Meteor mash was a dancing, starry punch of energy that hit the walrein hard. But the walrus pokemon had just enough energy left to hit Gallade with an ice beam attack. Recovering, Gallade knocked the mightyena out with psycho cut before the wolf could attack Metagross.

"Another meteor mash!" Steven said as the admin returned his fainted pokemon.

Metagross fired off the fizzy attack, but missed, and the walrein nailed Gallade with another freezing ice beam, which KO'd it. May recalled her pokemon and watched Metagross' next meteor mash hit its target. The walrein fainted.

"So, what were you doing with the rocket fuel?" Steven asked.

"We were-" the admin started.

"You shouldn't interfere so much, man, we're aiming for reform! None of your business, ha!" Archie chortled and dragged the admin off, bolting to the edge of the spit of land the SPERC was on. They both jumped off. May and Steven ran to look; somehow they had made it unharmed into the water 11 feet below and were sailing away on a relicanth.

"Thank you," Steven said.

"Oh, no problem- eh, we seem to meet up everywhere Aqua goes," May said.

"How did you know they were going here?" Steven gestured at the SPERC and the smoke drifting out of shattered seventh-floor windows. A handful of rangers rushed into the building, connecting a hose to a port in the ground just outside.

"I didn't, I just came to get my gym badge."

"Did you?"

"Yes," May showed him. There was an enthusiastic light in his eyes.

The sound of high-pressure water came from the SPERC.

"Good for you," Steven congratulated May.

"Thanks. Well, what were you doing here?"

"I live here," Steven said. "Technically. I'm away most of the time."

"Oh... Well, it seems like a nice place..."

"Indeed ... Aqua's meddlings are going to be big news in such a small place. I don't think they got what they were looking for, but still it would have been nice to know." Steven looked at his watch. "I'm sorry, but I have to go ask the SPERC researchers some things and then head off to work. I'll see you later. I'm off to Slateport pretty soon."

"Sootopolis for me, I think."

"Good, good. See you later, thanks again!" Steven recalled Metagross and headed off. May watched him go. Yes, it would be nice to see where he lived and visit or something... Guess working for Devon was a pretty demanding job.

It was a bit too late to go fly off to Sootopolis, so May wandered around the island, looking for trainers to battle. She wandered down to the beach where the Aquas had taken off, but there were no traces of them. What were they planning, exactly?

"Did you get your badge?"

May jumped. It was the kid in the fedora. He trotted right up to her in an awkward kind of gait, hands in the pockets of his black skinny jeans.

"Yes, I did," May said. "You?"

"Nah... Tomorrow maybe...I'll choose different pokemon. I have a lucario that's pretty awesome. How about you?"

"Um, Gallade's got great special attack, but my sceptile is good too," May said. "Did you want to battle again?"

"Nah, I'm broke enough as it is," the kid said. "Say, what's your name?"

"May," she said, looking out to sea. She didn't like the smell of the ocean but she enjoyed the cool spray blowing off it._ Don't be so cold_, she told herself. But over the years it had become her natural reaction when someone came to be with her for apparently no reason. She had never said it in so many words, but it was her first line of defence against people like Rosa, people who were with you and then left you and forgot to care...Against people like Brendan, who didn't even care in the first place ...

"Hi May, I'm Riley," the kid said, offering his hand. May was obliged to shake it.

"So you're on your experience period?" she asked politely.

"What? No, I'm licensed. I was licensed last year. Yep, finished off a few Sinnoh gyms then got bored."

"Licensed?"

"You know, if you want to be a trainer, you gotta get licensed...I was never very good at school so I decided I'd work and save up and buy a license, yep."

"You get to choose in Sinnoh?"

"Oh yeah, yeah. How about here?"

"Well you have to do school until grade 10, and then if you want to become a trainer - not many do, it's hard to get a high-paying job - you get an experience period..."

May found herself talking easily with Riley and he bobbed his head along with her explanations of Hoenn like he really was interested. He soon launched into a description of his lucario's stats, moveset and past battles. As May had no clue what a lucario even looked like she drifted off back into her own thoughts while he talked, and jerked herself back to attention when he was silent.

"Uh, pardon me?" she said, embarrassed.

"Do you want to see my lucario?"

"Well...sure," May agreed. Riley set off at an awkward sort of run for the town center. "Wait!" May said, but he didn't slow, so she had to run faster.


	18. The Makings of a Plan

Brendan slowly came to his senses. His track pants felt wet, he thought. He had a screaming headache and, Arceus, the dreams - he bolted right up to a sitting position on the riverbank. Swampert was lying half-in, half-out of the water, slumbering, and Swell was on its side, lying on the grassy bank. Brendan crawled over. It needed a revive. Disoriented, he grabbed his muddy, soggy bag closeby and somehow managed to get the square pill down Swell's beak and give it a hyper potion after that. The bird, immediately refreshed, starting cawing and hopping about, only to discover its torn tail feathers. It began to make distressing, pouty sounds as it preened painstakingly.

Brendan lay on his back. It was midmorning maybe, by the sunlight making it through the leaves of the deciduous trees above. Dreams never happen in real life, but when your memories have holes in them ... It's all too easy to fill them with fiction. Despite what Brendan had been told by doctors, what photo albums and stories he had memorized, there were things he was never sure of and never would be. He remembered some of the pieces. The one day his dad cut his hair. His sixth birthday with Ryland and the short chubby kid who stuffed pretzels up his nose. The time he made his mudkip pull a prank on his mom and felt really bad after. Those were the parts he was sure were real. There were a whole bunch of other parts that were real too, because if they weren't real, then what was he? A boy with a past made of fiction and dreams, useless remedies concocted by a damaged brain.

This headache wasn't a dream. Brendan got the neglected pill bottles out of his backpack. He felt guilty. Mom had trusted him to go on his experience period, take his meds every day. Would have been fine without them if not for the ... the aggron.

He was seized by a sudden fear and gulped down three of the little green pills. Maybe that would help. He scrambled to his feet, his brain kicking into gear.

"Where are we?" he asked the distraught Swell, and gave the slumbering Swampert a couple of kicks. She growled at him good-naturedly and roused herself, shaking off and sending spray everywhere. Brendan picked up his backpack and slung it over a shoulder. His Nav beeped, but it was just alerting him to the newest e-edition of Region Stat magazine he'd subscribed to.

Brendan followed the stream, racking his brains for what to do next. Going on the map he had seen in Magma's HQ, they were probably going to be heading to Sootopolis area in a couple days. C Origin. What could that mean? He also remembered Aqua mentioning, in Meteor Falls, something about an underwater blue orb they were looking for. And they had tried to make off with Devon's submarine, so obviously their destination was underwater, somewhere around Sootopolis. But Archie had said they didn't know exactly where. That meant it was a better bet to go to C Origin, once Brendan could find out where that was exactly. Castle Origin? The origin of something that started with a C? Hell, why was he even planning on chasing Magma/Aqua down? He couldn't tackle the aggron and whatever else might gather there if he wanted to finish his experience period alive. The reformist groups were just troublemakers anyway, not any worse than kidnappers looking for a thrill. Maybe it was best to give up and just let everyone else take care of it. _Yeah, maybe_.

He had to find a city either way. Civilization. Brendan saw some houses across the water, recalled the still-complaining Swell, and rode Swampert over onto a path. He found the sign: route 110. The houses northwards, then, were the outskirts of Mauville; the biggest city in Hoenn, home to about 47,000. Brendan started walking after recalling Swampert. To let Swell rest up a bit would be good.

As Brendan entered the city, commercial crossroad destination, the squat, wide apartment buildings and highrises shaded him, and he had to walk on the sidewalk along the businesses that lined the street. Trucks - load carrying trucks - were pretty much the only traffic, and there were a lot of them, swinging around wide corners, stopping and going at sets of lights. The city was a city of commerce, and the lack of open-air coffee shops and speciality stores showed it. Brendan passed the block-long casino and waited at a crosswalk. He hadn't expected to be so affronted by the bustling noise of the traffic.

He made it to the Pokemon center and healed his pokemon. It hit him as he walked back to the showers, scanning his trainer's card, spending some of his stash of credits.

His fourth pokeball was empty. He only had his trapinch, Swell and Swampert with him.

No Xense.

"Damn you!" Brendan hissed to himself. "Damn you." He stood there in the middle of the hallway. A trainer fresh out of the shower passed him. The Magmas had Xense. Or maybe they didn't, maybe they would just leave it there... He didn't know where 'there' was, though, and he couldn't go back and rescue it. Eyes watering, he walked to the men's shower rooms and entered one. He looked at his dirty face and dirty hat in the mirror, and his scowl that melted into an expression of helplessness. Turning away from the mirror, he ripped off his jacket and kicked off his sneakers. He didn't like mirrors anyways, he didn't like looking at himself.

But he was going to go. He was going to go to Sootopolis and find C Origin and beat Magma into the ground and get Xense back.

The water was as hot as it could go and Brendan let it burn away all his failure. The failure his experience period was. The failure his life in Hoenn was. So many things and people could have prevented the present state of things, but for the first time, Brendan included himself in the group he held responsible.

* * *

**Author's Note: I am so sorry to have a short emotional chapter. I can't really do emotion. and for adding about three chapters in an hour. REVIEW THIS THING. K next chapter.**


	19. Normal?

May's Nav rang as she relaxed in a Pokemon center bed. Riley was cute, in an adorable sort of way. A year younger than her. He was bunking in the mens' dorms, but she wouldn't be surprised if it was him texting her. She chided herself a little for making friends so quickly, but he seemed harmless.

But the number was Brendan's.

May held her breath in shock for a moment as it rang then quickly answered.

"Hi?" she said.

"Hi May. Hey, have you seen Aqua lately?" Brendan's voice came.

"Why?"

"I have a plan about tracking them and Magma down. Know about Magma?"

"Yes...they said they were going to help keep Aqua under control...how do you know?"

"I ran into them, they were tracking Aqua and nabbed 'em as they were trying to mess around at Meteor Falls. They kidnapped an Aqua, had a big fight, I overheard some stuff."

"Wait - what? But just today I ran into Aqua at the SPERC."

"Where are you?"

"Mossdeep."

"Good, it was a couple days ago I ran into Magma and Aqua, so anyways, we should meet at Lilycove and decide what to do."

"Um, I didn't say I was doing anything."

"But listen, I saw - heard some of their plans, they're planning to be at the Cave of Origin - near Sootopolis - in two days. We could stop Magma right then."

"Aqua is the one who needs to be stopped!"

"No, Magma is," Brendan laughed derisively. "Trust me."

May snorted. "Yeah right, Aqua is causing all the wreckage."

"But Magma's got the guts, they've got something up their sleeves," Brendan shot back.

Silence for a moment.

"Wait, you're in Mossdeep. You're not too far from Lilycove!" Brendan continued. "It would probably only take a couple hours to get there. Yeah, so tomorrow at their big department store, noon."

"Um, shouldn't you call the rangers first?"

"Hahaha!" Brendan laughed. "No. This is your experience period. It would be a great experience."

"Well, yeah, but why..."

"Just be there, May. Okay, bye."

Brendan hung up.

_Well, what do you know about that,_ May thought. _He wants to drag me along somewhere. _But part of her, the little hopeful part that never died, said it sounds like he does want your help for this, it sounds like maybe you could work together on this and it would be great.

She had to remake the Pokemon center bed because the sheet was uneven, and she liked hospital corners.

In spite of everything, she slept pretty well that night.

...

Brendan didn't. The pills had helped the headache, but not the dreams. They were back with a vengeance. He woke up three or four times in the night, half-conscious and sweating, aggron surrounding him in a murderous herd, or Magmas that turned into aggrons, or dead things that never really died in real life.

_Normal, normal, get things back to normal_, swum in his head as he dizzily swigged back a couple of the other pills. Normal was what people knew him as. Normal Brendan, no brain damage, nothing. If May knew ... _haha, that would be a disaster, _he thought as he spilled back onto the bed at 4 a.m. _Nah, I'm not really normal, but so long as that's what looks back at me in the mirror, it's all good, _he thought distantly as he drifted off to sleep. The ceiling spun above him like a whirling pokeball, an endlessly turning pokeball. _May looks good in that shirt..._


	20. Great Ideas

**Author's Note: I do not own Pokemon or Gamefreak. And yes I have a chip on my shoulder about Ash. He's ridiculous and absolutely defies everything about Pokemon. Anyways, I have so much written now. Can you believe I started writing the story at this point and tried to explain everything? Ouch. Well, I'm here now**.

* * *

Brendan had searched the Hoenn database for 'C Origin'. That signified the Cave of Origin, a historic site near Sootopolis, as he had told May. Sootopolis also had the eighth gym, and there they could scrap out who would fight Wallace first once they were done with Magma and Aqua.

It was complicated, Brendan thought. He wanted to fight Wallace alone, but if he went May would go too. And he - well, kind of needed her to help him deal with Magma. She was the only strong trainer he knew who knew about Aqua and Magma. But he didn't want her beating Wallace before he did.

Brendan woke up headache-free. He had a bit of time to spare. He grabbed his clothes from the laundry room in the Pokemon center and changed out of pyjamas, shirt, pants and nightcap. Cleaned his glasses too.

_If I leave now_, he reasoned as he ducked inside a utilitarian breakfast house along 45th Avenue, as traffic hustled about outside_, I'd get there about 11, providing Swell can fly just as good with a few missing feathers. _Another reason to pound Magma. After gulping down some scrambled taillow eggs and a slice of lepbread, made from the ground stalks of leppa plants, he slung his backpack back on and embarked westward. He planned to bike the nicely groomed route that led to the small hamlet of Verdanturf, but on his way he passed the electric gym and the very person he'd wanted to see, standing outside the doors.

Brendan crossed the busy street and pulled up on the pavement of the other sidewalk. The kid in front of the gym was arguing with an older man, his father, and both turned to look at Brendan.

"Brendan!" the kid said in his usual, slightly hoarse, slightly airy voice. "Battle me!"

"Whoa, uh, Wally," Brendan said, nearly floored by the kid's vivacity. He'd never seen him looking this strident, not even since helping him catch his first pokemon at Petalburg. (Norman had forced him to help, really, sending him off hunting for a ralts while May got to fight Brendan's dad first. After, May pretty much snuggled up to Wally and ignored Brendan, although she complained he wasn't cooperating as soon as Wally left! But she was the only trainer he'd consider partnering with... there really wasn't any option.)

"Wally," Mr Suru cautioned, wrapping an arm around his son. Wally pushed him away.

"No Dad, see, I'll battle Brendan and you'll understand! I'm not pushing it! If I combine forces with Ralts, we can beat anyone!"

"It doesn't work like that-" Brendan started. Mr Suru, in his plaid sweater, looked very concerned and tried to restrain Wally, but Wally was having none of it. Mr Suru was big, and Wally was small because of his condition, but Mr Suru obviously was afraid of hurting his son.

"Sorry, Brendan-"

"Dad! Dad! I can show you!"

Some insurance specialists across the street gazed down on the scene from their fourth-floor offices.

"Okay, okay, I'll battle you!" Brendan said. Wally calmed down, and settled into an extremely focused mood._ Arceus, do I have to do this? _Brendan glanced at Mr Suru, who shrugged helplessly back. Brendan hadn't been expecting this, from the terminally ill kid, the little guy whose unfortunate lot in life was to live under the fist of cystic fibrosis and die somewhere around 35.

"Go Ralts!" Wally shouted, sending out the poor little psychic pokemon. Brendan couldn't have laughed at it if he'd tried.

"Trapinch," Brendan said, releasing his weakest pokemon.

"Ralts, confusion!"

A rather small cloud of pink energy poofed out from the green-helmeted creature. Trapinch blinked as it took the hit. Brendan gulped. "Wally, you can't battle me, you gotta train more first-"

"No! I'm showing you NOW!"

"Wally, I had a marshtomp last time. Remember? It's a swampert now. Do you honestly think your ralts can beat that?"

"I will!" Wally shouted. "You better attack!"

"Wally, get off it and go home-"

"Battle me!" Wally looked so frantic and about to lose it, and Brendan thought he himself was going to lose it, so he told his trapinch to use crunch. _Make it quick, not slow and painful._

The dark energy smashed and soaked into the ralts, which let out its sad cry as it fainted.

Brendan gulped again.

"Son, Brendan did try and tell you," Mr Suru said gently as Wally looked at the limp ralts with disbelief. He'd really thought he could win? _He must be watching to much of Pokemon Advance, that ridiculous kid's anime with that kid... Ketchup or something ... who beat foes way stronger with just belief and whatnot..._

Mr Suru helped Wally recall the ralts. Wally looked distantly at Brendan. He coughed several times, ugly coughs.

"Let's get you back to Verdanturf," Mr Suru said. "Brendan?"

"Oh, no, no thanks."

"Thank you," Mr Suru said, leading Wally away. "I'm sorry," he said, looking back, apology twisting his genial features.

"Me too," Brendan said, scuffing the ground with his shoe.

He released Swell and took off, not caring what Mauville citizens saw. He wanted to get away and onto the next thing. _Great idea, Brendan, go visit the terminally ill kid. Great idea. _

...

Brendan arrived in the oceanside city of near 40,000 around noon. The streets were cobbled and wide, and the grassy boulevards smelled like the sea which was so close. Most of the houses, as Brendan made his way through the outskirts of the city on his bike, were modest, but none were in a state of disrepair. The Mainland was good to the regions in that way. Bike and foot traffic grew more heavy as Brendan neared downtown; he could see the 15-floor department store and the columns of the art gallery above the houses. It was a more pleasant city than suit-and-tie Mauville. He didn't know anyone he passed, or the laughing groups gathered in coffee shops, or the motorists zooming by as he waited for the crosswalk light. A couple Finish Line stores caught his eye, but he wanted to get to the department store before May did.

A half hour he made it inside the sliding doors of the busy department store, sweating a little. He'd stuffed his jacket in his backpack, leaving his loose orange tank on. Now, to find May, if she was here. Unfortunately she was, talking to one of the cute counter clerks. Brendan walked up behind her and May whirled around, startled.

"What took you so long?" she recovered, giving him the once-over.

"I flew here from Mauville. Why are you here already?" Brendan asked. The counter clerk went to serve someone else and Brendan and May stepped aside for the person next in line.

"I flew from Mossdeep."

"That's closer than Mauville is," Brendan said.

"Hm," May sniffed, crossing her arms. She looked at a TV displaying ads above the counter. "The jackpot for the local lottery is at 500,000 today."

"Did you a get free ticket from that counter girl?" Brendan laughed. Like she had gotten her contest pass, and her HM cut, and countless other things - just by being nice and whatever to people. She was such a goody two shoes when she wanted to be.

She gave him a look, fiddling with her bandana so that the pokeball symbol was perfectly aligned with her left ear. "No."

"So, to Sootopolis first is the plan," Brendan resumed.

"Elaborate, please?" May said, tossing a pokeball in her hand.

"Magma's gonna be there at the Cave of Origin around tomorrow. Maybe Aqua will show up. They've got one of Aqua's admins anyway."

"Got? Someone switched sides?"

"No, they kidnapped her."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Hell, I'm not lying," Brendan said shortly, wiping his forehand with the back of his arm.

"I, personally, think Aqua's the main problem. If you count what you said about them, they've damaged facilities and valuable scientific endeavours four times. They caused an explosion at the SPERC."

Brendan didn't know what the SPERC was, but he waved her off. "We don't even know where the Aquas are headed."

"The Magmas are probably chasing Aqua," May said. "I met one of their admins, Courtney. She has good intentions, she said."

"She said," Brendan said, putting a self-righteous finger in the air. "I met their leader. He doesn't seem like he's above much. Archie's just a gangster."

"You met Magma's leader? You said you just overheard things," May accused.

"Kind of ran into him, yeah -" Brendan backpedaled.

"And what else? Challenge him to a battle and lose, so you're not telling me?" May jabbed.

"Lose? You want to battle right now?!"

"Battle you? Battle?! I thought we were here to do something about-"

"Excuse, would you two please go outside if you're going to talk that loud?" a counter girl said, leaning over.

"Sorry," May said quieter, but Brendan turned on his heel and pushed out through the crowd. May sighed through her teeth and followed.

Outside on the curb, they both awkwardly stared at each other for a moment while foot traffic pushed past them.

"We can go to Sootopolis and check around both places." Brendan got his map of Hoenn out of his backpack. "The Cave is somewhere around there. And that's the other spot. In the middle of the ocean south of Sootopolis."

"Other spot?"

"On the map, there were two marked places, just like this."

May shook her head tensely. "And you only told me about the one you wanted to check out?"

Brendan huffed and kicked the legs of a metal trash can. "Meant to..."

"Stop arguing and own up to it-"

"That's what I was doing!" Brendan lunged into her space, furious for a second. May flinched. He withdrew and scrunched the map up back in his backpack.

"We can check both places out. We'll have time," he offered. _Although the Cave of Origin is a definite place, while that other spot is vaguely underwater somewhere, and Arceus knows how we're supposed to get a sub._

"Fine," May said, a bite in her tone.

Brendan led the way out of the city and released Swell. May released Peli. They traded a veiled look. As Brendan was about to take off, May said,

"Wait - you have your license?"

"License?"

"For flying," May said.

"Who needs a license as long as you can hold on?" Brendan gave her a disdainful look and took off.

"Insurance?" May yelled after him, over Swell's swooping call. Brendan didn't look down.

...

May stood there for a moment as Brendan ascended. She almost couldn't believe his level of ignorance. Seriously considering staying while he went, she stroked Peli's thick crop of blue head feathers. The gull waddled from side to side. But in the end, Aqua did need to be stopped, and who else could she go with? Maybe Brendan was right about Magma. If he was, it was obviously trophy knowledge to him, not crucial truth.

May climbed on Peli, affixing a pelipper harness she'd purchased at the department store. They took off for Sootopolis.

* * *

**YAY Wally. I always thought it was obvious he had cystic fibrosis. And there you go.**


	21. Sootopolis

The wind flicked and tore at Brendan's shorts and white, three-peaked hat. He had a headache still. He'd put his contacts on so he could wear his go-goggles. Swell's wing beats were a rhythm he knew; he could pretty much hang on and enjoy the ride. The coastline was a detailed miniature below him, and he could see Sootopolis ahead, still a dark spot on the horizon. He looked back at May, glad she wasn't trying to race him there. Probably saving herself for Wallace. Neither of them had mentioned challenging the eighth gym, but Brendan knew they were both strategizing about it.

May's long pigtails flew behind her in the wind. She was riding a pelipper. _What a weak pokemon. Probably just a HM slave._

But he hadn't been kidding about battling her, though she seemed to think it was a joke. He had noticed the jangling ring of badges clipped the the strap of her bag. What was all that about a flying license anyways? That actually rang a bell. She probably wasn't lying about it_. Not like someone like her would lie much anyways_, Brendan thought. _She's just so moody you think she is. _

He turned his attention back to the flight. His cheeks felt like frozen ice sheets but his heart beat with exhilaration. It was different, flying over water than flying over land. There was thrill of the depths waiting for you if you fell.

...

Sootopolis was a towering shell of an ancient volcano in the middle of the ocean, the top blown off. Inside it, a city had been built. Using the hardened remnants of an ancient eruption and engineered metal supports as the foundation, Sootopolis stood as a city of tiers, highest around the inside of the sheltering volcano walls. There was no underwater rock to build on in the middle of Sootopolis, though, so a wide lake remained in the centre of the habitation - good for sunsets, swimming, and fishing. Its population of roughly 2000 paid a high price for the exotic living, but lived affluently, producing the best berries and vegetables in the region.

Brendan alighted on grassy turf about 1:26, staring up at the impressive landscaping of the city. May landed beside him a minute later. She took a moment to gaze up at the tiered, cultivated slopes and the geometric dwellings, made to code and kept up like all Mainland housing projects. Citizens were busy at work, farming berry trees and vegetable roots and all sorts of food. Brendan looked across the central lake to the other side, where the Pokemart was, and then north to the gym, on a slightly raised tier. He caught May looking at it and they sharply broke gazes.

"So, where's the cave?" May asked as they headed in the Pokemon center and waited for the government-paid staff to heal their tired pokemon. Some people sat at a table, having coffee. Noises of trading transactions floated from the upper level.

"We don't have to head off yet. The marked date was tomorrow." Brendan yawned and stretched. "We could look around a little bit."

"Look around?" May gave him a sideways glance.

"Yeah. Look at all the berries and plants and stuff. I bet you could buy some good food."

"You're the one who eats pokeblocks, not me," May said.

Brendan snorted. He was about to mention how he'd taken the full restore - how he'd been poisoned in the first place - but kept his mouth closed.

"I _am_ running out of kelpsy jam," May said.

"Great, so maybe we'll meet back here at 6ish...?"

May grabbed his arm with a surprisingly tight grip. "You think I'm just as dumb as you? Not!" She dragged him out of the Pokemon center.

"Dammit May, I'm not going to run off to the gym-"

"Then you'll be fine coming along." May wondered how much she could affront him before he lost it and went away.

Brendan trailed May up the tiers of Sootopolis. They arrived at a busy plateau full of stalls and people yelling, advertising their goods. The air was heavy and full of different smells, all the fresh aromas of growing things. May seemed happy, running from stall to stall to check out the crates full of shiny, bright leppa berries and elak greens, the dried bunches of flowers dangling from tent supports. Brendan wandered around behind her sullenly, one of the stalls interesting him despite his best efforts; a black-haired young woman was weaving different-coloured stalks on a wide wooden frame, creating a picture of some sort of ocean scene. Her other artworks stood propped up on the table in front of her.

"That's really good," Brendan commented. The girl looked up.

"Oh thanks," she said in a smooth voice. "Are you looking for anything?"

"Not really... Where did you get the idea to do this?"

"Well, I was dyeing clothes one day and the dye got on some tall plants, weeds really. I thought they looked nice, so..."

"That's really smart. No art school or anything?" Brendan leaned on the table, keeping an eye out for May, a few stalls away.

"Oh, no, no money for that," the girl said, looking purposefully at her work.

"You sure don't need it," Brendan commented, casually angling a weave of a milotic toward him so he could see it.

"Brendan!" May yelled at him from a couple busy traffic ways ahead.

"Gotta go," Brendan said, taking off. He might as well look like he was doing something.

May was standing at a long stall at which pokeblocks were stacked to look like a rainbow-coloured Pokemon center. Moreover, she held one of the blocks in her hand in a brown napkin. They were about half the size of a fist and could be broken into four smaller pieces to fit in a round dispenser.

"This one's a blend of aguav and persim, mmm," May said. "You'll like it!"

Brendan looked at the dumbfounded stall tenders. A couple of people around gave him looks.

"Hah well-" Brendan said, trying to shrug it off.

"But you love them! Remember in trainer's school you thought they were a snack our professor brought in and -"

Brendan gave her a veiled look, deciding how he would play this out. She was all delight and smiles. The crowd was all bugged-out eyes. "As long as it's above 24 smoothness," he said imperiously, taking the napkin-wrapped stat-booster and biting into it. It was like flaky peanut butter. People stared at him, open-mouthed. He did a 360° survey of the crowd. "Mm, mm, compliments to the chef, quite good. Perhaps ... a pinch of salac berry would be good bet next time. Did she ... pay you for this?" he said faux-confidentially to the stall tenders.

"Uh, uh, well yes," the older man in charge stuttered. It was akin to seeing a man eat dog food.

"Ah, ah. Sometimes, you know." He wiggled his eyebrows at May, then grabbed her arm and marched off, through the Mercado Market, as it was called, and down several tiers to a ledge with some trees and a hand-crafted bench. He did like the pokeblock, it was actually pretty good. It made him feel energized, kind of, ready to show off. Like an energy root drink without the pachirisu-on-crack effect. Energy roots were one kind of plant that affected both humans and pokemon; some cities had banned them or put a limit on how many you could purchase because things got a little dicey after the third can.

"Thanks for the snack," Brendan said, sitting down by the tree, not looking at May. "I didn't know you were so sweet and kind to treat your friends to pokemon steroids."

May was re-tying her laces so they would be even, sitting on the bench. "Actually, I'm not. I only give friends real food."

"So you're evil then. A nasty creature."

"Yep," May sighed, relaxing back and staring across the glittering, still lake to the seemingly tiny houses on the other side.

Brendan finished the last of the pokeblock, folded the stiff napkin into an airplane, and threw it so it landed in the lake.

"Brendan-!" May looked honestly horrified.

"Hahaha," he almost cackled. "Last one to the gym gets the Rain badge after me!" He took off at a sprint.

"My-!" May exclaimed. "The-the-the-" she sputtered to herself as she dashed after him, hoisting her ribbon-tied package of kelpsy jam over her shoulder.


	22. Race to the Rain Badge

Brendan made it to the gym first, but as it turned out, the way to the leader was through increasingly more complex puzzles, grids of ice. If you stepped on a panel twice, as Brendan discovered rushing through the first rock-scattered platform, you fell through to the bottom. The hole he'd fallen through closed over again as May stepped up to try. It looked a whole lot like ice, but May bent down and saw that there were complex rays of light flitting through some sort of glass, making it look like ice. Besides the blue dotted lights marking off the platform, the gym was dark. May carefully made her way through the first platform, then was faced with a challenge twice the size. She started going on one path but soon worked herself into a corner where she had no choice but to step on a square she'd already stepped on. The floor flew out from under her and she landed just a few feet below, cutting off a scream. She was in some sort of frigid basement - filled with gym trainers. Another gym challenger was just making his way down the icy slide to the exit.

Guess there was no option. May released Gallade and went at it with the first trainer, a certain Bridget with a lombre level 41. May beat her fairly handily and moved on to the others.

...

45 minutes later, in between a couple Pokemon center visits, May and Brendan were both unable to solve the top platform and rushed up and down after each other, no words exchanged. This was a competition now. The defeated gym trainers lounged around with drinks in their hands. Some of them laughed and taunted the trainers as they slid down the ice slides to retry again and again. One time Brendan had almost made it but another trainer had made it to the top and he wasn't allowed to go and intrude on the leader battle. He forgot the genius route he'd taken when he'd gotten back up.

May faced the last level for the eighth time. She'd gone left. She'd gone right. She'd gone straight. She'd tried zigzagging, meandering, but always cornered herself. _Ok, this time, _she thought, navigating the cool grid. And she made it to the end, to the last flight of stairs, and then she slid on a square and had to catch her balance backwards and fell through again.

She bit her lip, steaming, ignoring the laughing gym trainers as she slid down the cold slides and started back up again. But when she got to the top platform, the way up to the battling platform was barred off with digitally displayed words "gym challenge in progress".

"Brendan!" May yelled into the air. "Ugh!" She willfully fell through the ice and went outside the gym for a breath of fresh air. _Couldn't he be a bit more of a gentleman? Please, let him loose, she thought. I just want one shot!_

...

Sootopolis' leader, Wallace, was finishing off a match in the palace-like water gym. A spectacular waterfall cascaded behind the tall trainer as he stood on the circular podium, facing a Pokemon ranger on the opposing podium. The ranger had made it through the trick ice steppes through trial and error.

The water crashed and the row of blue spotlights shone, reflecting off the pools under the podiums, in which orange lights glimmered and remoraids swam. The arena was bright around the podiums but abruptly dark beyond that.

"Rosa! Stun spore!" the Ranger ordered his last pokemon in a drawl.

The grass pokemon let loose a blast of paralyzing spores at Wallace's seaking which took the hit.

The Ranger whooped and thumped his hat against his thigh.

Wallace frowned and ordered his seaking to fire an ice beam. The arena, as all gyms, was equipped with a Devon-engineered energy system that allowed sea-dwelling pokemon to battle as long as they stayed on the podium. The seaking opened its mouth, beginning to form icy energy.

"Make it a nice one, Sea," Wallace told it with a smile. Although the spores had affected its fins, it was able to fire an elegant web of ice whose spears of energy pierced the roselia and took it out. His battle style was a combination of power and grace - similar to Winona's, his sister.

"Excellent," Wallace clapped.

"Well, well dammit!" raged the Ranger, hooting angrily at the fainted roselia.

"Thank you for the challenge, come again," Wallace reeled off, recalling Sea and checking the time on the wall display. It wasn't his fault the Ranger didn't use magical leaf when he'd had the chance.

"Where's the way out?" hollered the Ranger.

"Through the ice," Wallace nodded. The ranger stomped off, muttering to himself. That was the third challenge of the day; the average for this time of year. Wallace was about to go and rest in his back room but surprisingly, another trainer climbed the flight of stairs to stand at the podium across from him.

"Ld. Wallace, I challenge you to a battle," said the kid in the white hat, a yellow backpack on his shoulder.

Wallace nodded. "I am Wallace, the gym leader of Sootopolis. Show me the power you wield with your pokemon. And I, in turn, shall present you with a performance of illusions in water by me and my pokemon!" he said with finesse.

...

"Ok, let's go," Brendan said. "Go, Swampert!"

The large pokemon shook her head and roared challengingly as Wallace sent out luvdisc.

The level 41 pokemon tried to affect Swampert with attract, but it didn't work and Swampert 1-hit KO'd it with an earthquake at full power.

"Interesting," Wallace said, sending out a walrein.

They traded earthquakes and body slams. It was clear the walrein had been trained to execute its attacks so they would be visually pleasing; each body slam was a glowing windup and a powerful pitch of a symmetrical conic field of energy.

Swampert was about to knock it out with another earthquake, but the walrein landed a water pulse that confused Swampert. The mud fish pokemon bellowed in frustration as she was unable to focus properly and the earthquake attack backlashed on her. She effectively KO'd herself. Brendan withdrew her and sent out Swell, although he knew it would be creamed by the walrein. However, the walrein's aurora beam missed. The delicate funnel of icy energy poofed into thin air and Swell destroyed the walrein with a powerful air slash.

"Go, Milotic," Wallace said, releasing his favorite pokemon. The elegant, red-and-blue scaled eel-like pokemon - though it was much more beautiful than any eel - coiled up, its long eyebrow fins waving gracefully about it.

Swell had time for a fly attack and then a full-powered ice beam knocked it out.

Brendan knew he was going to lose as he released trapinch. Surprisingly, it got in a few dig attacks before the milotic took it out, too.

If he'd had Xense._ If those damn Magmas hadn't-_

He paid Ld. Wallace the price of losing.

"Where's the way out?" he asked.

"Back down through the ice," the leader nodded, tucking a kinky piece of bright cerulean hair back into his sailor's hat.

...

Humiliated, Brendan passed May who was standing outside the gym.

"So?" she said hopefully. Brendan stuck his hands in his pockets. May dashed up behind him. "No? How strong is he?"

"Really strong," Brendan said sourly.

"Yeah? Could I beat him?"

Brendan whirled around, stopping May up short.

"Go ahead, try," he said with a repressed fury. "It's just a game to you, huh, trying to prove something by beating me?"

"I can't believe that! You're the one who thinks life is a game!"

"And you're just self-righteous!" he sputtered. "You complain about me and tell me I'm wrong and then you're all happy and nice to other people when -"

"You dragged me off on this escapade in the first place! Do I have the right to complain about you? Yes! You rush off doing whatever, don't care about others-"

"Oh! Really! How do you know what I care about?" Brendan extended his hands in ridicule.

"It's in everything you do," May yelled at him.

"As if we're both not trying to beat the damn gym," Brendan yelled back.

May gave him a half-sad, half-pained look.

"I would have beat it, too, if Magma hadn't taken my nuzleaf," he said quietly and spun on his heel and walked away. "Yeah, go and beat the gym. What the hell. Like anything bad ever happens to perfect May."

May stared after him, a knot of tears in her throat. Perfect May? Where had he got that from? Magma had taken his nuzleaf?

She felt dirty after an argument like that. She didn't have the heart to try at the gym. To be honest with herself ... she doubted she could beat it if Brendan hadn't. Even without his nuzleaf.

...

Brendan had told one lie. Magma hadn't taken Xense. Brendan had left Xense for dead.

He paid for a room at the Pokemon center and sat on the bed with Trapinch in front of him, unable to stop his vision from swimming.

"Failed you," he said hoarsely, stroking Trapinch's smooth, bony head, looking into its unwitting starry eyes. "Sorry for my stupid broken brain." But he was saying it to Xense. Maybe if he'd had his wits about him with the aggron he could've saved Xense. Of course he could have. He still would. With or without help, because he'd just blown his help off.


	23. Yeah, So?

May was eating breakfast early, as the sun rose. Of course she couldn't see it beyond Sootopolis' walls, but the orange and mauve skies and the tranquility of 5 am were all she needed to relax. She dangled her feet in the clear lake of saltwater, the snorunt she'd caught in Mossdeep the morning before she'd left happily tottering around on the shore.

As much of a jerk as Brendan was, she was still going to go with him and oust Aqua and Magma. She did trust him on that, which was rather funny, she thought to herself, given everything. She had actually amended her original idea of checking out both places Brendan had said he'd seen on Magma's map. It would be fine to just go to the Cave of Origin. After all, how were they supposed to go underwater?

As Sootoplis woke up, May headed to the public garden to watch the citizens volunteer their time, weeding and watering. She spotted Brendan around 7:30 as he came to sit on a bench bordering the garden. He looked back and saw her and looked forward again. _Why do I have to be the voice of reason? _May headed over and stood in front of him.

"We should get a move on."

He looked up her, eyes big and dark behind his half-frame glasses. "To..."

"The Cave of Origin."

Brendan stood rather abruptly.

"Alright."

"So where's the cave?"

"Uhhh...I'll check with the map in the Pokemon center."

"You mean you don't know where it is?"

Brendan sighed and started walking.

"I was thinking, maybe Aqua and Magma are working together."

"Ha. Ha. No," Brendan said.

"Like I told you, there were Aquas at the SPERC in Mossdeep. And, there was this guy there - you know, the one the Devon president had me deliver the letter to-"

"If you would stop with the letter thing," Brendan said as they neared the Pokemon center. "Arceus, let's just agree the letter and the goods were equally important." The air between them was tense.

May was using all her patience. "Did you say Arceus?"

"Yeah, so?" Brendan jumped. The Region Stat journal had been running articles on theories of a master pokemon, Arceus. It had just slipped out.

"Hipster," May said flatly.

Brendan stuck his hands in his pockets.

"All I was saying is that this guy Steven, who is the son of the Devon president, thought something was up," May resumed as they entered the Pokemon center. "The Magmas weren't there to help like they had been at the Weather Institute. Apparently they made a deal with him or something. They could be working together . . . . weather pokemon... Rocket fuel... Not sure if..."

Brendan ignored her and walked over to check the map for the cave of Origin. He headed out and May followed him. "May, they're not working together. I saw it."

"I know you're not telling me everything. At least own up to the stuff you didn't see," May said tightly.

"I haven't lied about this stuff," Brendan said, not looking at her. "It's just west a little, the Cave," Brendan told May as she remained silent. Moodily so, Brendan thought, but he wasn't about to dig for the reason she was ignoring yesterday's fight. He released Swellow. The magnificent bird cawed and shook its headplumes. "Wait, Steven?" Brendan said suddenly as May was mounting her pelipper, adjusting a curious harness on it. She glanced at him and Swell, giving him the I-don't-care-enough-to-report-you-to-the-rangers look.

"The guy at Mossdeep?"

"Yeah, cuz it's Mr Stone - ah, never mind," Brendan interrupted himself, climbing atop Swell.

"Huh? What were you saying?"

Brendan took off without looking back, and May, gritting her teeth, followed him into the air.

_Better not give her another reason she was naturally perfect_, Brendan scowled to himself. But he was pretty sure the Hoenn champion himself was Steven Stone...

At any rate, whoever was trying to ransack the Cave of Origin would get a beating. But preferably Magma.


	24. Archie and Kyogre

Entering archaeological sites that were Mainland-protected was strictly forbidden, even if you were son of Devon corporation's president, which Steven Stone was. But his father's company was a highly influential, multi-regional company, charitable and supportive of technological advancement, and they were doing what needed to be done to stop Aqua from making trouble.

The documents from the Sinnoh historian had come with a warning about messing with the gems found in the ancient pokemon's habitats. So when Devon first got wind of Aqua planning to wake up legendary pokemon, they wrote a request to the shipyard in Slateport and engineered special parts to aid in building a submarine for sealing the sea floor cavern. Aqua managed to intercept a letter and thus tried to sabotage the sub building, but they never got away with the sub parts thanks to a trainer, a certain Brendan. So the sub was built, and Steven had had many practice runs with it, and today was the big day, as Capt. Stern stood by, saluting as the sub slowly was let down into Slateport's docking waters.

...

No one saw the bald, eely man hiding behind a row of bushes. He held a radio to his ear.

"He's just left, in the dock now," the man hissed into the mic, glancing above the greenery as the sub slowly started jetting off. "Not submerged, doesn't look like it's gonna be. Gardevoir-Oddish, you are Gardevoir-Oddish-Oddish-Dustox to Gardevoir-Oddish!"

"OK Matt," came the staticky reply, along with some fuzzy, "Yo! Breathe through your mouth! Through the tube! You're not all gon' drown! It's_ ox-y-gen!_"

...

Steven Stone didn't know about the dichotomy between the reformists. All he knew was Aqua was intent and dangerous; all news channels were busy blowing up the situation, especially the incident at the SPERC. The Mainland had even contacted Steven yesterday. Now there were warrants out for the capture of any Aqua member. But thanks to Brendan - and May - the submarine was built, equipped with a special magnetic compound that would permanently seal the cavern that Aqua was aiming for.

Steven thought of popping in to see Wallace north in Sootopolis before the endeavour, but decided against it. He'd already had to battle off a couple Aqua members on his eastward home island - with May, who had earlier delivered him the letter which assigned him this task. The mysterious Magma group hadn't showed up to help. Although Aqua had run off with no explanation after losing their double battle, the encounter also raised questions about this Magma group.

The sooner Steven could shut down Aqua's plans, the sooner he would contact Magma. He wasn't leaving Aqua for Magma to deal with; it seemed they didn't have their act together.

It was early afternoon. The ride so far had been peaceful. He cut the submarine's engines; the coordinates said he was close enough to dive under. Steven was a gemologist, and the reason he was doing this was so he could investigate the cavern, and the gems that the ancient document detailed were in it, before sealing it.

He pressed the lever down for the hatch to close. The sky above him became a shielded tint of purple. It was a beautiful summer day to be messing around in caves underwater, he mused as he pushed valves and O2 supply hissed on. The floor of the small sub was clear and Steven looked down as he maneuvered the joystick and the waters closed over the protective bubble hatch.

Schools of magikarp and carvahna swam around him. He slowed the descent to watch a sharpedo chase down an unfortunate tentacool. Those pokemon were causing toxic pollution around Dewford, he'd heard.

The rock mass that was marked on his coordinates as the Kyogre's resting place was to his left. Hopefully the interpretation of the old document was correct. He trusted Cyn's expertise, but historical documents weren't written for the pleasure reading of future civilizations.

He maneuvered the sub around and found the entrance. No one had known where it was but him and his father and a select few others who had read the document from Sinnoh, who could be trusted to not breathe a word. It was dark down low, and a chinchou slowly squirting by provided two points of light as he entered the cavern, not wanting to flick his beam light on yet. This was too easy, he thought.

Inside the cavern was a lake- a greenish, cloudy lake._ A lake underwater! How is that possible_? How were two bodies of water kept separate? Steven thought of getting a sample - but as he inched the sub closer, he was able to see a dark blue, shadowy figure immersed in the lake.

_Better not to_, he thought, snapping pictures instead. Suddenly he noticed the bluish light in the cavern was emanating from the prismatic gems encrusted in the walls of the cavern. _Water stone_? Steven whipped the sub around a little too fast, bumping the hatch against the rock face of the cave. No, there were refractions of red in these gems. _Dawn stone? - no, not the right shade of blue. Indeed! _Steven collected his wits, comparing this to the cave of Origin. Steven had discovered the cave of Origin while exploring - so if this was any like it... _Hm, where's the prize_ - there!

A foot-wide stone, the same as the rest, but containing deeper refractions of red, grew across the cavern. Steven bobbed the sub over and gazed at the stone, dying to have it ... Maybe he could take a couple smaller ones -

Something thudded into his sub from the back. Steven jerked the sub around - to face people with dive suits, oxygen tanks, and a good collection of water pokemon. A large, human-sized relicanth included. One of the four divers lifted a finger. The relicanth seemed to understand. Steven edged the sub to the side but the relicanth jetted and body-slammed his sub aside, throwing him into the pressure and gas control panel. The sub bumped into the rock face and Steven saw the diver in front flutter-kick to the large stone, prying at it.

"Stop!" Steven yelled automatically, dashing for the control panel and the lever that controlled the stubby arm that was supposed to apply the magnetic compound. He wrenched it out of its nook in the side of the sub and whacked the diver on the side of the head. Another diver awkwardly ended up floating/stepping on top of the stricken diver, a sharp picaxe in one hand, as a sharpedo made for the sub arm and grabbed it in its jaws, chomping down furiously. The sub wrenched side to side and Steven staggered, trying to keep his balance. He couldn't send out his pokemon, they had no way of leaving the sub to contend with -

A final wrench sent the sub spinning out the opening of the cavern and Steven saw the large stone popping nicely out out of the cavern wall, the diver cradling the rough shape caringly, his companions gathering around...

Kyogre woke up.

It was almost magical, the way the underwater lake splashed up into the ocean water as the Kyogre rose - first the sleek, shining blue shell of its back. The divers back-pedalled but with a gigantic surge of water that sent Steven spinning away, the Kyogre breached the underwater lake and blew out the entire cavern, chunks and spars of rock and old coral and gems swirling everywhere in foaming surges. Steven's view was bubbles and flashes of blue glimmer as rock thunked against the hatch and the impact of the wave flattened him against the pressure panel. Then, in a matter of moments, all was clear, and the Kyogre was propelling its massive body up towards the surface and north towards Sootopolis.

Steven, shocked, collected himself.

And heard the unwelcome hiss of oxygen leaking.


	25. Maxie and Groudon

May and Brendan landed at the cave of Origin, waves lapping at the jut of rock. The opening was unblocked; some of the cavern was public.

"Pokemon?" asked May.

Brendan shrugged and headed in, spraying himself with a max repel.

"You know, I'm just trying to make sure we - you - don't get your butt spanked by Magma or Aqua or whoever's waiting!" May yelled as she followed suit.

"I've already got my shit in order," Brendan hurled back. "Take care of yours."

"You need me," came the sure reply.

He ignored it and flipped out a flashlight. He only knew May was following him by the offbeat footsteps behind.

...

Wallace had a nice back room with a leather couch and a fridge and bar. He flopped down on the couch, pulling off his white beret, running his fingers through his long, bright cerulean hair. Not many challengers came before lunch, giving him time to himself. There was a message on his Nav: from Steven. It brought him the update on the Mossdeep Aqua encounter.

"The space centre said Aqua was inquiring rather forcefully about rocket fuel, but Aqua themselves brusquely told us there was nothing important there. Now, since Magma was nowhere to be found, I wouldn't rely on their help. I even suggest you keep an eye on the cave of Origin. I'll probably stop by soon, Wallace."

The message ended. True, Magma had mentioned their willingness to guard the cave of Origin, against Aqua. Perhaps that was only a lead-in for something else. Wallace wirelessly locked the gym doors and ran to go and surf to the cave of Origin. Steven had kind of assigned it to Wallace's care.

...

There was no cave map and no lights wired inside. Brendan chose a couple wrong turns and had to double back a couple times. Whenever he said "we have to turn around" May gave him daggers for eyes and followed. Eventually, through ladder climbing and rock scaling, they found an interior chamber emanating heat, metal-barred door ... Ripped apart. The alarm light stayed dim; its wiring had been torn as well. Voices came from inside. May and Brendan stood to the side of the glowing red entrance and listened.

"... fuel wouldn't have been effective, even they had managed to acquire it," a serious, deep voice spoke in cadence.

"So what are we waiting for?" a female spoke, her voice recognizable to May and Brendan.

Silence followed and Brendan peered in: sure enough, the one with the deep voice was Maxie, back to Brendan as he faced a deep, bright and hot pool of lava, two assistants at his side.

"Commander...?" the female spoke again, but Maxie held up his hand for silence. The lava bubbled ominously. Maxie cut a striking figure in a tailored coat, his shoulder-length red hair combed back from his forehead and flipping out slightly at the ends.

He exhaled.

"Yes, indeed. The Groudon will have no problem taking down the Kyogre, if such may arise. Aqua fools! Yet, at the same time, we have them to thank..."

Maxie started making his way around the rocky perimeter of the cave - towards a magnificent red gem encrusted in the opposite wall. It was a deep red like the spots of precious metal all over the walls, but it refracted a dark, burnt and bloody light.

"Now?" May hissed at Brendan, but he was intent on Magma, wondering why they were doing this - as Aqua had declared their intention of expanding the sea's domain, maybe Magma's goal was the opposite.

"Hm," Maxie uttered in a satisfied tone, chisel and hammer in hand. He struck away at the base of the large gem. "Devon has the knowledge at their fingertips, and yet they do not use it . . ."

"Devon can't access this cave," Brendan said to himself, frowning, then jumped as May rushed into the cave with a yell, releasing her pelipper. The two other Magmas turned to confront her but Maxie merely looked up and went back to work.

"Hey, you're that kid from the Weather Institute," remarked the female Magma, dressed in a short shirt and long flapping leather skirt.

"Courtney, yes, I remember you," May said tensely. "And you too." Courtney was nowhere near the smiling, helpful person she had seemed to be when they first met. The other trainer was hooded, dressed in wide pants and muscle shirt. May felt a prick of panic. Was Brendan just going to stand by as she tried to take them on? The male Magma leered confidently at May. With a nod of her head, May signalled the circling pelipper to attack them with its surf move.

"Peeeer!" crowed the bird, synthesizing a curved wall of water and releasing it down into the Magma admins, knocking the male one over the edge of the lava pit. A cloud of steam whooshed from the lake of lava.

"Let's make it clear you've officially ruined the we're-the-good-guys front by breaking in here," May declared.

"Tabitha!" Courtney screamed, grabbing her partner and pulling him up.

"Huh? Tabitha?" May said.

"Nyargh," grunted he, shoving Courtney.

"Sorry!" she squeaked.

"Wait, what-" May started.

"HAHAHA!" Brendan exclaimed, running in, his laugh reverberating around the room. "SO TABITHA IS THE GREAT, TRUSTED ADMIN! AH, TABITHA!" Brendan hollered, the shout booming inside the cave. Echoing caverns were such great places. His swellow beelined up and over their heads and his swampert charged Courtney, bowling her over as it galloped around the lake. Screeches from Swell and shouts from Maxie echoed as the Magma leader dropped his chisel, shielding his face, madly trying to reach his pokeballs on his belt.

"Peli, supersonic!" May ordered as Tabitha whipped out a camerupt, a mightyena, and a phanpy. The pelipper's confusing sound waves hit the mightyena full-blast and it started to chase its tail.

"Camerupt, fire blast that bird!" Tabitha yelled as Brendan sent out his trapinch, who jumped in front of the pelipper, taking the transenergy fire blast with little sign of injury.

"Now crunch!" Brendan yelled to Trapinch.

"Phan-phan, rollout!" Tabitha ordered. The little blue elephant somersaulted towards the stout trapinch, knocking it aside with a burst of energy. The unbalanced trapinch's crunch missed its mark.

"Pelipper! Surf on that camerupt!" May ordered her bird. Courtney had recovered and went running to help Maxie.

"OH! SO TABITHA HAS GIVEN HIS POKEMON A SWEET LITTLE NICKNAME!" Brendan yelled, his words booming around the cave. Phan-phan came around at his trapinch again, but May quickly sent out her numel, who managed to shove Trapinch aside and blast some flames at the blue elephant. Phan-phan dodged, and the flames burst into Tabitha without transforming back into energy. Tabitha yelped and slapped at his smouldering clothes.

"LOOKS LIKE TABITHA WILL NEED A DAY AT THE SPA AFTER THIS!" Brendan shouted, grinning. May snorted as her pelipper released another wall of water, this time aimed directly at Camerupt. Brendan's trapinch slapped Phan-phan with a bulldoze. Across the room, Max was hiding behind his sandslash and Courtney's goldbat, which were hard put to, warding off both Swell and Swampert. The lava bubbled and heaved oddly but no one noticed.

Camerupt fainted and Phan-phan toppled over as well, just as the mightyena snapped out of confusion and roared at Trapinch, sending it back, transducted into its pokeball.

"Mimi, bite that pelipper!" Tabitha yelled.

"Pelipper, get out of range!" May yelled, as Brendan went pounding around the lake, seeing the golbat nail his swampert with a critical shock wave.

"Swell, aerial ace that sandslash!" he yelled.

Courtney whirled to face him as Max continued extracting the gem, then glanced up at the swellow screeching in on the sandslash.

"Golbat, intercept!" she screamed, panicked. But the golbat didn't know a move called intercept and flapped its wings in confusion as Swell knocked sandslash out, swooping back up in the air.

"Ha!" Brendan said, glancing back at May, whose pelipper was in the jaws of the mightyena, her numel stodging about throwing rings of flames at the wolf pokemon.

Brendan opened his mouth to command Swell to attack the golbat, but as he did Maxie wrested the red gem free with a near-gleeful "ah!" and the lava heaved and the Groudon's angular head crests rose, dripping molten rock. To Brendan it seemed as if an intangible jolt of energy passed between the stone and the legendary pokemon. The earth shook.

Brendan changed his mind. "Swell, we gotta fly!" he said, recalling his swampert as Courtney looked discombobulated.

"Looooo-ooow!" whooped his pokemon, diving down. The Groudon's shoulders breached the lava. It was an armoured, upright form of gleaming red plates and thick, creased, white underbelly. Brendan hopped onto Swell, grabbing its head crests, smoothly like they had practiced. The Groudon rose further and dripped molten rock all over the cavern. "Swell, let's take out that mightyena!" Brendan said, gripping on tight as the hot air blasted his face. He heard Maxie and Courtney yell at each other and their pokemon below.

...

Wallace had an uneasy feeling as he felt the ground tremor. Nearing the cave, he saw it definitely wasn't closed and an intense heat blew out from the entrance. Quickly he made it to the inner cavern. The scene inside made his jaw drop; the Groudon, lava flowing down its armoured body, was about to break through the cavern roof; a swellow swooped down and aerial aced a mightyena, which released a pelipper it had in its jaws. Wallace backpedaled out, stumbling on the shaking ground, as the released pelipper swooped down to the floor and carried a girl into the air. There had been outfitted people who looked suspiciously like Magma members inside - but who was to blame, them or the kids?

...

Brendan saw a man in a white cape dashing toward the cave exit - _wait, there was a guy in a white cape in the cave? _It looked like Ld. Wallace- The red light illuminated the low ceiling and Brendan yelled for Swell to go lower. He didn't have his wits about him and Swell winged around the cave a couple times as the ceiling of the inner cavern started to crack and debris started to fall from the ceiling. Swell dodged a couple of rock chunks but a hoarse call and a scream signalled May and her pelipper had been hit.

The inner cavern shattered and the Groudon blasted through just as Brendan swooped down to grab May, and Wallace made for the ladder back down a level.

Brendan's hearing went from overload to numb. Giant spars of rock crashed around the outer cavern as the Groudon heaved upwards, unstoppable. Wallace disappeared down the ladder just as a boulder-sized, lava-splattered rock closed off the exit. Brendan grabbed May's hand from where she had fallen as Swell hovered. Brendan fully expected to be taken out by a downward-hurtling spar of rock, but he managed to get May, who appeared to be unconscious, on top of his bird. Something blue flashed in his peripheral vision as Swell powerfully regained altitude and started circling the cave, struggling under the weight of two. With a roar that made Brendan's gut wobble like dubstep, the Groudon blasted through the outer cave ceiling into the sunlight.

"Dodge!" Brendan ordered Swell as rock, again, went everywhere. He checked below - there was no way to exit the way they'd come in. Light beamed now through the opening in the cave the Groudon had punched. That was the only way out.

"Swell, up!" Brendan ordered. The swellow started to climb but as the Groudon roared it dipped back down, unable to escape pelting rock.

"Shit," Brendan grunted as debris hit his back and he almost lost hold of May, curling over her instinctively. Glancing down briefly, he thought he saw Tabitha pinned under rock. He jerked his focus back. "Up, up," he commanded Swell. It started to rise. "NOW, before the Groudon really starts clearing this place!"

"Sweeee," it crowed, putting on a blast of speed, quick-attack style, and slipped out the opening and spun away from the emerging Groudon.

Brendan gasped, catching his breath and looking back. The Groudon fired a spectacular solarbeam into the sky. A white figure was jetting quickly away from the splitting cavern, surfing a tidal wave on a whishcash.

They quickly flew past Spotopolis and, south of it, Brendan noticed a disturbance creating waves in the water.

"Swell, let's swing back to Sootopolis," Brendan said. The tired bird complied. Until the volcanic walls blocked sight of the sea, Brendan watched the waves from that curious spot grow larger and larger.


	26. Crushed

Swell let its riders down by the Pokemon centre and collapsed. Brendan stumbled off and recalled it into its pokeball, his pulse jolting through him to the soles of his feet. Sootopolis residents were already gathering outside, and eyes turned to him as he bent over the still-unconscious May. She was scraped up too from the midair fall off her bird. Roaring echoed from different directions; Brendan swung May up and jogged into the Pokécenter, where a real crowd was forming.

There were 30-odd people inside and everyone immediately turned to Brendan. "She's out cold," he said breathlessly to the nurse who came to help. A couple other nurses ran out from the back. Sootopolians started pelting him with questions. Brendan felt his swampert lose health inside its pokeball as it fainted; a little strength steadied out Brendan's heartbeat. That happened sometimes with his swampert. They had been together so long, Brendan figured it was so devoted to him that it could transfer energy to him . . . If only he could give it back.

"Would you like us to heal your pokemon?" a nurse asked, and he reflexively gave her his pokeballs.

"...the cave of Origin?!" a locale shouted at him among the rising din.

Brendan snapped out of his daze. He realized he'd gone into attack mode. He hadn't learned anything about where he'd been taken, where Xense was. Like he'd had a plan, ha, how was Swell supposed to have carried May and him and a prisoner out?

"Uh, uh yes, there was-the cave-the Groudon, it's awake-" he managed, trying to think of some logical way to get to the Magma people and stay out of the way of the Groudon.

Everyone _almost_ panicked.

"What's Groudon?" a few blurted.

"Silly, it must be the name of the ancient pokemon inside!" a fat man hollered.

"So that's what it's called!" screamed a little girl.

Everyone panicked.

"Should we surf away?"

"I have a really deep cellar we can hide in-"

"No stupid, the Groudon is probably a ground type!"

"My altaria can carry two!"

"It's gonna be too powerful! It's coming to KILL US ALL!" declared the fat man.

"Now I don't know what it's doing, ok?" Brendan intervened. "So-"

"Brendan! What-"

The nurses moved away from May as she awoke and jumped up, unsteady. Her cheek was bruised and she held her right arm to her side. "What, what.." She murmured, moved past him and looked out the window and came back, a faraway, urgent look to her.

"What, May?"

"My - my pelipper -"

Brendan felt light-headed before she did. It - it was still in the cave - probably -

Wallace rushed in through the doors. Everyone snapped to attention.

Collected but speaking fast in his usual smooth tone, Wallace outlined the plan of action.

"There has been disturbance in the cave of Origin, and the ancient pokemon is heading our way. Everyone, use the east exit to evacuate. Use whatever you can get quickest: pokemon or boats. Head for Evergrande landing. Please hurry."

The Sootopolians needed no second bidding. They flooded out, the fat man at their head, auctioning off spots on his wailord as they went.

The nurses looked questioningly at Wallace. He nodded and they quickly left, one handing Brendan back his pokemon, informing him that they had the pokerus, as usual.

"I'm glad you two got out safe," Wallace said seriously. He was still in his purple slacks, teal-zig-zagged trench coat- the gym suit. "I'm assuming that you were trying to prevent the chaos, not inciting it...?"

"Yes," Brendan said.

"My-my pelipper-" May was nearly gasping. "Brendan, we were flying-"

"Just wait," Brendan told her, turning to Wallace. "Yeah, we should leave too, 'cause something's moving south of this city."

"Really?" Wallace said. Brendan nodded.

"You don't happen to know the location of the other legendary pokemon?" Brendan cocked an eyebrow.

"No...is that what you're thinking..."

Brendan nodded. The ground tremored.

"We should run, yes, but I have to make sure..." Wallace trailed, turning and leading the way out, his gait slightly uneven to the sharp eye.

Brendan grabbed May's sleeve and followed, mind racing, trying to organize some way of getting his hands on any surviving Magmas...

...

Steven flipped switches to no avail. As he'd begun to feel as if he were to pass out, the sub also started to float upwards. He waited till he couldn't any longer, then held his breath, popped open the hatch in a rush of heavy, cold currents, and released his metagross. He'd held onto a claw as it fought upwards; although solid metal, it was powerful enough to reach the surface in time for Steven to gasp in oxygen, his spiky white hair now streaming water down his face. The Kyogre broke the surface and sent Steven head-over feet in surges of water. Somehow he'd managed to clamber up on Metagross and tell it to take him to Sootopolis. The magnetically hovering pokemon veered quickly away from the giant Kyogre and headed for Sootopolis.

Team Aqua had surfaced and noticed the Groudon making a commotion a few miles off. Now they were busy heading directly away from both legendary pokemon, due south. They could only hope the Kyogre would defeat the Groudon, causing a flood from the depths where it had awoken.

Archie, in the lead, held onto the big blue stone. It would probably fetch a dandy price; he hadn't expected to find it there, nor guessed that it would wake the Kyogre. Two birds with one stone. Hopefully it wouldn't be wasted on express tickets to Sinnoh. Time to gauge the reaction and start preaching.

...

While Wallace was shutting down the town's generators and the people started to evacuate in a continuous stream, Brendan flew up on Swell to get a good look at what was going on, leaving his swampert to protect May from being trampled by evacuees.

Swell had grown by one level, but its stats had jumped by 5 or 6 points, by Brendan's clip-on sensor, distracting him temporarily. For the past couple days it seemed like Swell was going through a growth spurt; as far as Brendan knew only his pokemon accelerated periodically like that. He secretly thought it was connected with the innocuous pokerus. But if so, it was his secret.

"Ah, the other legendary," Brendan muttered as he looked south, wind snapping at his hat. The giant pokemon had surfaced with a tidal splash and was heaving towards Sootopolis - or the Groudon, which was roaring south to meet it. Brendan noticed the dark clouds gathering above the risen ancient pokemon. Go figure. So Aqua had somehow known where the water legendary was.

He strained his eyes, but couldn't see anyone sailing away from the Cave of Origin, or what was left of it. Were the Magmas all crushed, along with May's bird?

...


	27. Always So Calm

...

May was crying. She was trying her best not to once she realized her pelipper had been crushed, but then thought screw the world and cried. Brendan's swampert stood guard as people swarmed around them, looking on rather quizzically.

Swell landed with a caw and Brendan dismounted and recalled his bird. He looked at May for a moment, and then realized he didn't have Trapinch. A wave of panic hit as he confirmed its pokeball was indeed empty. He sat down rather abruptly. That was two gone now. May sobbed more quietly. The people stopped coming, now just organizing themselves at the exit, leaving as fast as possible.

"Well... " Brendan said. He got up. He realized his back hurt from the rocks in the cave and he wrapped a hand around his back to feel; blood. The roars and grating calls of the ancient pokemon warned him it was more than time to leave. The ground shook again. Not now, now was not the time... Trapinch is small, it's possible he could have escaped, he thought._ No! We have to escape, I'll come back for Trapinch and Magma soon. _He tugged May up.

"Leave me alone!" she nearly screamed.

"Dammit, we gotta run!"

"Do you ever STOP being an egocentric - an egocentric-" May stuttered, angry now, her tears gone.

"Egocentric? I saved your life!" Brendan retaliated.

"Not my pelipper's!" May yelled.

"So it's _my_ fault?!"

"Every time you drag me into something that goes wrong, yes, it DOES end up being your fault-"

"This again?! Let me make this clear, just cause we come from the same shitty little town-"

"We come from? _Ha_! You've been here for only a year and a half! You just think you can waltz into wherever and do whatever-" May broke off, turning away from Brendan, cheeks hot. She remembered it had only been the day after her best friend moved away to the Mainland when Brendan's family had moved in. She'd been trying to distract herself, organizing her pokemon to go out and train again, when she heard her mom talking to someone downstairs, and Brendan had come rushing into her room, introducing himself, immediately interested in her grovyle's pokeball.

She'd thought they could be friends. Her dad encouraged her to hang out with him. From Rosa now living on the Mainland, letters grew increasingly more sparse. As the switch was turned off, and Rosa stopped calling May, May figured it was better to hang out with Brendan than sit in her room or train alone. Some first-time experience period moments that May had hoped to share with her best friend, she'd shared with Brendan. He was a strong - and lucky - trainer; there was no one else from Littleroot who was even close to getting their first badge, who May could be more than just acquaintances with. And that was why she had partnered with him on this, because he was a strong trainer.

It hurt, as she saw more and more that Brendan was just another kid who wanted to be the very best. She stuck with him when he'd take her, but May gradually realized that he was on a separate journey. The times he'd called her up, like this time - was it his attempt at being friends, or was he using her? She wavered constantly between one viewpoint and the next.

He probably would end up being the very best. And leave her behind. Like her best friend had.

...

Wallace came surfing back across the central lake on his whishcash as the sky brewed darker. He had spread the evacuation warning among all the residences he could, and those people ran to tell everyone else, prompting a wave of evacuees flooding down the terraces, some screaming, some serious, some curious. The generators were off; there was no time to secure belongings or bring anything along. The noise of the ancient pokemon seemed to be gradually closing in. As Wallace landed on the bank Brendan and May stood on, Steven came over the lowest part of the volcanic wall riding his metagross.

"Wallace!" Steven shouted, drenched and shivering, as Metagross made his way down. The gym leader looked up at the steel pokemon's underbelly.

"Steven? Fine time to drop in! The city's evacuating!" Wallace yelled back. The crowd pushed through the east seagate in a willy-nilly crush of bodies. People on this side of the lake ignored their gym leader and his guests and surfed - or swam - over to the other side.

Metagross landed with a thud and Steven jumped off. "Why so wet?" asked Wallace.

"Aqua," Steven said, glancing around and up at the emptying dwellings that were cast in rumbling shadow.

"Obviously," Wallace said.

"The reformists," Steven clarified.

"Ah. Would that be the disturbance Brendan told me about south of here? Is it really the Kyogre?"

"Yes, Aqua must've followed me - where are the citizens heading?" Steven had struggled out of his light grey dress shirt and now wrung it out, pulling the wrinkled thing back over his head.

"Evergrande landing," Wallace said, surveying Sootopolis like his gaze could keep it intact. "I've also called it in to 311." 311 was the pokemon Ranger emergency number. "Shall we follow?"

Always so calm. You could only tell how panicked Wallace was by how fast he was talking. Steven noticed May suddenly and did a double-take.

"Wait, she-"

"They were mixed up in Magma's business - I don't think they're at fault for whatever is coming, but they'll be going with us." Wallace started towards the eastern sea gate. "The other one's Brendan."

"Yes, I know - May!" Steven yelled at the girl, a stone's throw away. She looked up. "Is everyone safe?" he asked Wallace.

"As much as possible, but-"

"Then let's run! May!" Steven called to her.

Brendan sighed through his teeth and pulled her up and somehow got her on his swampert. The large pokemon lumbered surprisingly quickly after Brendan, who broke into a jog after Steven, who ran ahead of Wallace, making for the eastern sea gate.

The clouds continued to darken and the ground tremored.


	28. Grande Evacuation

The storm system continued to bloom, sweeping south to above Sootopolis as the evacuees rushed east, their Pokemon pushing through the water. May sat vacantly on Swampert and Brendan had to hold her so she didn't fall off, their calves in the ice-cold water as it started to rain. Brendan kept glancing back at the monolithic legendaries, plowing forward to meet each other. From the south, the sky was full of dark, brooding clouds, but on the Groudon's side, the sunlight was strangely intense. It was a freakish, amazing picture of nature.

As soon as they got to safety, Brendan was going to head back to the cave of Origin and look for Maxie, or Courtney or whoever he could find. _Get Trapinch back, check for Peli._

The waves grew less choppy and the pod of evacuees spread out as they surfed farther and farther away from Sootopolis. Many of the city's residents were weeping openly, as the legendaries were on a crash course that would destroy their home and livelihood. Some panic rose here and there from families missing a family member; Wallace tried to get everyone to stay on their pokemon but inevitably there was frantic going back-and-forth to find a son or a mother.

Steven hovered on Metagross at the head of the group while Wallace stayed in the middle. The son if Devon's president called his father and the Elite Four, telling them to prepare for 2,000 coming in. He called the Pokemon center at the landing and at the League to let them know that there was going to be a large group of people bypassing Victory Road under his authority.

As champion of Hoenn, Steven was looked up to almost like the president of Hoenn, if there were such a thing. He called a couple news firms and gave them a couple details. He called the rangers' main office and had them put an emergency ban on any travel near routes 124-128. He needed to get the Sootopolians to safety, and then figure out a plan with the Elite Four, and fast.

...

"Seriously man! It's like a hurricane or something!"

The foyer of the Pokemon League was spacious, a medical unit on one side and a sales counter on the other. The floor was orange and yellow tile. However, under the circumstances the Champion had alerted the staff to, blankets were being taken out from the medical area and Drake, the oldest Elite Four member, was hauling out a table and making some coffee. "I just got this espresso maker from my wife, it was a special present," he muttered as Phoebe, a girl of native descent, came whirling up in her floral skirt and lined up an assortment of mugs and glasses.

"You old fogey," Phoebe, the second Elite Four member said, slapping the big sailor in his macho navy trench coat. "It's been forever since something happened here!"

"Guys, guys!" Sidney called, still looking out of the window west over the waters. "It's totally like a giant storm or something, and man, I can totally tell there are some giant things in the water there by Sootopolis!" Sidney was the first Elite Four challengers had to face, dressed in a vest and slim striped corduroys, a fierce red mohawk his distinguishing feature.

Glacia gently pulled him away from the window. She was the mother to the group when she needed to be, dressed in a peasant-style purple dress.

"Sidney, please go and see if you can find any soup in the lunchroom," she cajoled.

"See it for yourself!" he said, running off back. The doors moderators and people manning the sales counters cleared tables and chairs to the side, excited to be doing something unusual. Glacia told the door moderators where to put the blankets.

"You'll have to set them up on this side." She surveyed the room, biting her lip. Drake was mumbling grumpily about having to use his new coffee maker, and Phoebe was dancing around, her two duskulls balancing a large fake plant between them. "Put that outside," Glacia told the girl.

"Yes ma'am," Phoebe sang.

Glacia thought for a moment, then intercepted the door moderators. "You know, the foyer isn't going to have room for 2,000. We'll need to use Sidney's battle room and the hallway."

"No problem," the moderators said, hurrying off to switch the doors off their auto-locking mechanisms. Sidney almost ran into them, carrying a big cardboard box filled with dried elak and whatnot soup packages.

"Here we go. Where do I put this?" he asked Glacia.

"On the sales counter," she waved him off.

Phoebe wandered back in and helped Drake pour the coffee out, pandering to his mood with petty condolences, her duskulls humming along.

Several minutes later, they had done pretty much all they could do to receive a small town. The soup was boiling. Sidney snuck behind the counter and ladled some down his throat before Phoebe jumped on him and made him spray the hot herbal meal everywhere. She laughed and Sidney play-wrestled her down as she shrieked.

"Ah, Sidney, no!"

"Clean that up," Glacia told them. She went to the window. Yes...there were large shapes in the water by Sootopolis, and it did look like quite the storm was brewing. Drake appeared at her side and handed her a pair of battered binoculars. She took them and peered through. Hardly believing what she saw, she passed them to Drake.

"Well..." the sailor-turned-trainer said slowly. "I'll be. Pokemon?"

"What else? And look, you can see Sootopolis surfing here. They're not too far away."

"Ten minutes and a bit," Drake said gruffly. "Hm."

The screaming of an electric guitar made Glacia jump. Sidney had dragged his guitar and amp out and was enthusiastically going at the League theme. Phoebe's duskulls imitated his movements.

"Sidney! Stop that!" Glacia ordered him. The chord he was striking buzzed down.

"Aww, but they'll totally need entertainment!"

"No. Not in a case like this."

Sidney sadly dragged his music equipment back to his room. Phoebe giggled.

...

The evacuees burst in the doors in a flood of crying children and frantic parents and shocked individuals, all wet and bewildered. The Elite Four jumped into action along with the medic and sales counter personnel and the door moderators. Steven gave each of his Elite Four a nod as he assisted the Sootopolians. Coffee was handed out - nobody really went to take it or the soup, food was last on the current list of concerns. The town's population kept flooding in and they were migrated into the usually restricted area of the League, into Sidney's plain battle room, a raised stage emblazoned with a pokeball above a sheet of energy circuits below. A few of the little kids ran about excitedly, but everyone else was exhausted. Some left their pokemon out and medics ran around, administering hyper potions.

The Elite Four quickly saw that wasn't going to be enough space and opened up the other three battle rooms and the connecting hallways, all of which were filled quickly. When everyone was settled and there was only the task of comforting the Sootopolians, Steven pulled Glacia aside along with Wallace. The senior Elite Four gave Wallace a nod.

"Good job here, Glacia," Steven said. "I think Drake and everyone else can keep up with the soup and coffee. Follow me to my back room."

As they made their way to the restricted passage to Steven's quarters, Brendan ran up. "Hey, hey, uh, Mr. Stone...?"

"Just Steven, it's alright," the Champion said.

"Steven ... Can I come too? I mean, I was there, I know what happened." He almost withered under the glacial stare of the middle-aged woman who was undoubtedly an Elite Four member.

"Yes, come," Steven nodded. Brendan dashed after the three, glancing back at May who was propped up in a chair with a blanket around her. She would be fine for a little bit.

Brendan felt a little sad. He'd hoped to experience the League for the first time as a challenger, to meet Steven as the Champion in the ultimate battle. At the same time, it was a privilege to be allowed into the Champion's back room.

...

It was like an empty, expensive night club, and Brendan felt out of place as he awkwardly took a seat at a long, polished metal table. He was bursting with what he had to say. Steven told Glacia and Wallace what the Champion himself knew and that he'd gone to seal the seafloor cavern, but a bunch of divers - presumably Aqua - had taken the gem and awoken Kyogre.

"And here I was sure your love of all that glitters would get the better of you," Glacia said, amused. "But Aqua beat you to it."

"Not all that glitters. Stones, not jewels," Steven said like he'd heard the joke before.

"You went to seal the place where the Kyogre was resting, Steven?" Wallace asked, sitting properly in a high-backed, angular chair.

"Yes. It was a covert Devon project - don't spread it around, but now that Aqua's awoken the Kyogre, it doesn't really matter."

Brendan sat rather invisibly for a minute or two until Glacia turned her attention on him. That woman was scary. He'd have to battle her one day if he wanted to be Champion.

"What does this trainer have to do with the crisis at hand?" she asked Steven.

"He was present when Magma awoke the Groudon," Steven said, "As Wallace tells me."

Brendan gulped as Glacia looked back at him. Her stare was like an iceberg bearing down on you.

"Magma? What is Magma?"

"They're an organization that proposed to counter Aqua," Steven interjected. "It seems that was a front. It was Magma, right, who actually removed the large stone...?"

"Yes, tell us what you saw," Glacia resumed as Brendan opened his mouth. "And why you were there."

"Without a doubt, it was Maxie, their leader, who took the stone out." Brendan mentally backtracked until he found a good place to start. "I was in Fallarbor some days ago and overheard some of their plans," he said.

"Magma's plans?" asked Steven. "I only got news that Aqua had caused problems at the Meteor Lab there."

"Yeah, they had a big run-in with Aqua in Meteor Falls, no one else saw. I knew they weren't up to anything good. . . ." Brendan hadn't told May he had been kidnapped after being knocked out by sludge bomb and had barely escaped. He didn't even think once of telling the champion of Hoenn. "I saw Magma had a map with C Origin marked on it, and figured out that meant the Cave of Origin. So me -and my friend, we came here to see what was up."

Glacia gave him a judicious look, clearly showing she didn't trust him. "Why didn't you notify someone?"

"I...uh, didn't know anyone to tell ... I mean, I had battled Aqua off before, and that was good-"

"You're that trainer?" Glacia said, glancing at Steven for confirmation.

"He and his friend, May," Steven said. "They were both help to Devon."

"Obviously, things have moved past a state where they can be prevented," Glacia stated. "What occurred in the Cave?"

"Maxie - the leader - he pulled the stone out, although me and May were battling two of his admins off. As soon as he popped the gem out, Groudon woke up and I got out as fast as I could," Brendan explained.

"We'll need a description of the leader from you later," Steven said. "Even I haven't met him."

Brendan felt more awkward.

"Aqua and Magma are - as far as I can see - going head-to-head, but using the legendaries," Steven continued. "We don't know exactly what their goals are-"

"Aqua just wants to cause trouble to make some sort of demonstration to the Mainland about how Hoenn shouldn't be under their control," Brendan interjected. Steven raised his eyebrows.

"Exactly how much did you overhear?" Glacia asked.

"Just that," Brendan said, shrinking. "Magma didn't say anything about their goals." He thought for a second. "And they tried to get Aqua to tell them where the Kyogre's stone was," he blurted.

"Is that all?" Glacia's tone was so cold it felt like icicles stabbing his hearing.

"Yes," Brendan almost winced.

"At any rate, we'll need to stop the legendaries quickly. That won't be an easy task. If we prolong a battle too long, who knows what damage might occur. If we attempt to catch them, the red tape would be simply smothering after," Steven continued. "I'd like to preserve as much of Sootopolis as possible," he said, directing this at Wallace. The gym leader nodded. Steven noticed his friend was pale. "Why don't you get some soup?" he suggested.

"If you don't mind," Wallace acquiesced, rising from the table and leaving the room. Brendan noticed the slight unevenness of his walk as he went.

After a few minutes of debate, Steven had assigned Glacia and the other three Elite Four to try and assemble a minimum-contact team to battle the Groudon and Kyogre, while Steven himself would contact the Sinnoh historian. "Cyn never translated the whole document you know, we just got so excited over the first part that the other bit was forgotten about. There's a chance that the rest of it may be of help," Steven said. "Alright, everyone, get to work. And Brendan, we might need to refer to your experience with Magma and Aqua later. For now, please help out in what ways you can."

"Sure... Steven, are you going to try and catch the Aquas or Magmas?"

"Not right now. All they have are the big stones; they can't cause more trouble than they already have."

"The thing is, I'm not sure if they escaped from the cave of Origin, the Magmas... And in all the battling, I left my trapinch in there, and May's Peli, it might be injured."

"A good point. As soon as it appears safe to do so, we'll get the rangers to perform a search-and-rescue. However, it's much too dangerous right now." Brendan followed the other two out, biting his lip.

So he'd have to disobey the Champion.

He didn't want to, but he had to.

* * *

**A/N: I just adore Hoenn's Elite Four cast. So happy I get to put them in. Did the convo between Brendan and everyone else seem natural? Review and tell me!**


	29. The No-Plan Man

The cacophony of such a population crammed in a small place was overwhelming to May. She took coffee from some guy with a mohawk. Somehow her dulled senses took in that this was the Pokemon league.

Feeling exhausted emotionally and physically, she could barely feel sad about Peli or angry at Magma._ It isn't really Brendan's fault_, she nodded to herself. _I_ _should call dad... _

From a door at the back of the room came Steven and a woman in a dress and Brendan. _Why is Steven going inside the actual league... He's a Devon worker ... That doesn't mean_... her thought trailed off as Brendan came over to her and started talking at her, but he was kind of fuzzy and she couldn't quite tell what he was saying... In one hand she was clutching an empty pokeball, her hand white.

...

"May. May! Snap outta it!" Brendan shook her by the shoulders. He looked at what she was holding and wrenched it out of her grasp. She seemed to reanimate and looked at him, mouth open to say something but no words coming out. Brendan glanced around, over and through the crowd; the Elite Four were busy, no one was paying attention to him. Brendan squatted down. "So May, I think you should stay here-"

"You need to call your mom and dad, Brendan," May interjected.

Brendan frowned. "Yeah, I should. But May, I'm going back to the cave of Origin to look for your pelipper-what's its name?"

"Peli."

"Peli-" a knot formed in his throat- "-my Trapinch, and Magmas."

"That's way too dangerous."

"I don't need you to tell me that. But I think while Steven and everyone else are running around trying to battle the Groudon and Kyogre, Magma might know something they don't. Steven thinks they can't cause any more trouble, but I don't know, that big stone seemed powerful, like it had a connection with the Groudon, and Maxie's got it."

"Wait, why...why did Steven take us here, is he friends with the League?"

"Yeah, kind of. Ok so May, I'm going to take off-"

"Where are you going to put him?"

"Who?"

May was obviously still a bit out of it. She had grabbed her coffee and was swaying slightly back and forth. "Maxie or whoever."

"Uh... I'll think of something."

"I would come," May said tiredly. "You need help... Brendan the no-plan man... phone your parents..."

"Soon," Brendan nodded.

"Wait," May tugged his jacket as he stood up furtively. She dug in her bag and handed him a pokeball. Brendan stared, speechless. "Take it. For now. You only have two Pokemon left, right?"

"R-right," Brendan stuttered, accepting the loan. "Uh...thanks."

"Welcome." May sat back and watched him leave the warm and dry League, unnoticed by all. A medic came over with a cold pack for the bruises on her ribs and some gel for the cuts on her arm that her earlier fall had earned her. She didn't have the energy to oppose Brendan's idiotic idea... He needed help...

...

Wallace was shaking, curiously, as he tried to spoon down some soup. Steven came to sit by him, where there was a little space behind the sales counter. The Champion leaned forward, clasping his hands and propping himself up on his elbows. He'd changed into his suit, black jacket with two purple zigzags down the front, steel armbands clasping his upper arms, red cravat. This was an official emergency.

"My friend, I am sorry," he said to Wallace. The lean gym leader was younger than him but taller.

"So am I," Wallace said. "Why do I shake, Steven?" He rubbed his hands together and gripped then together but they kept on shaking.

"Because you're part of your city," Steven said. The two were pretty good friends, having gone to trainer's school together. They had also challenged the previous Champion on the same day. Steven gave the gym leader a held pat on the back.

Someone swept in the doors, the storm raging in curtains of water outside. She whipped off a cap that had two purple wings on it, showering water on the floor, letting her long purple hair go. Pushing stridently through the beleaguered crowd, she came to stand at the sales counter.

Steven knew Glacia as a friend; if not, he would be scared of her. However, Wallace's sister was the one who always kept him on his toes. He had the feeling that if she chose to one day leave her post and challenge the League, Hoenn would have a hell of a vicious Champion.

Wallace looked up at her with his eyes.

Winona looked at him, not acknowledging Steven. When she did, her full lips tightened and she turned back to Wallace. It had been a long time since she'd seen Wallace in person.

"You're alive," she said.

Wallace nodded. "Casualties are being counted."

Steven got up, clearing his throat, and hurriedly left to help with that task. Winona followed the Champion with her eyes then looked back at Wallace.

"So?" she said, a tilt to her tone.

"No, Winona, no," Wallace buried his head in his hands. "This is an emergency. All I'm thinking about is Sootopolis. It's going to be destroyed..."

Winona sighed through her nose, pressing her lips together. "I'm glad you're alright," she said tersely. She whipped her hair over her shoulder and, just like that, headed back out of the League, where her swellow waited.

Wallace watched her go.

...

"It's crazy! Yeah! Oh that is so sweet, you were there when it happened!" Riley was on the shore of Mossdeep as the sunlight beat harshly down, watching the distant Groudon and the storm system that seemed to be approaching. He'd called May as soon as he saw the disturbance. He listened to her on the other end of the line. "You lost a pokemon? I've never had that happen! You should go rescue it, yeah, but actually Mossdeep's under evacuation notice, some people are heading off...it's probably really dangerous with the Groudon...who's that?...oh ok... getting your pelipper back?! Whoa... Is he insane? No first aid skills? What? Hey, I took some medicine before I got licensed- I should go and help your friend out, yeah!" he glanced up the graded cliff, "so I'll just call my folks and let them know, you take care, yep!"

Riley stuffed his Nav in his pocket. He released his staraptor, Stare. The fierce, stout bird spread its wings for Riley to climb up. The kid pulled his fedora down securely on his head and paused, looking toward the looming storm system. He'd used to be afraid of caves and such, after a bad experience with his lucario. But May sounded like she needed help. She seemed like a nice girl, and a strong trainer to boot. Riley nervously took off, urging Stare on south. At least exciting stuff happened here, not like in boring old Sinnoh.

...

Brendan had second thoughts and even some third thoughts as the gusting rains hit him and Swell. But May had given him Gallade; she obviously expected him to do it. Flying illegally as he was. Swell, on the other hand, was raring to go, all healed up by the medic personnel at the League. Brendan mounted and Swell ascended into the growing storm with a fierce call.

The rain was not only wet but cold. Rivulets ran down Brendan's go-goggles. Thunder boomed as they drew nearer to Sootopolis. Brendan kept his gaze trained on the hump of disturbance in the ocean where Kyogre was, and the Groudon's red figure as it strove to meet the dark thunderclouds with harsh sun.

"Angle north," Brendan told Swell. The bird did so.

A minute later, Brendan felt someone following them. He turned around on top of Swell as the bird's wings pumped through the storm, the wind whipping his hat sideways and sending streams of water sailing off it.

It was a woman on a swellow, wearing a visored cap and a jumpsuit sort of thing, looking like a gym leader. Brendan thought for a moment - she was Winona, leader of Fortree - and her swellow dipped and rose to catch up to his.

* * *

**Author's Note: *sobs* I didn't expect May to lend Brendan her pokemon that is so amazing of her blubber blubber blubber**


	30. Back in the Cave

"Where are you going," Winona yelled at the kid on the swellow.

"The cave of Origin," he yelled back uncertainly.

Leave fools to their errands. Wallace would have told the kid to get out of the air. That wasn't the way Winona ran things. The kid didn't have a harness on his bird or anything. Winona lay lower against her swellow's feathers and the bird put on a burst of speed in the northwest direction of Fortree.

...

Pretty sure that encounter had not been a positive one, Brendan encouraged Swell on in the direction of the Groudon, which was swerving around the east of Sootopolis to meet the Kyogre. Maybe most of the volcanic city would escape unharmed, Brendan thought. He wouldn't know that swerving was not one of the Groudon's finest attributes.

Swell cawed in distress as the gale worsened. The Groudon paused its march through the choppy waters as beams of strong sunlight sliced through the thick clouds. The hulking pokemon began to take in energy.

"Go north!" Brendan urged Swell, wanting to get behind the Groudon. They swung around it in a half-mile radius as it lowered its head and let loose a giant bolt of dazzling energy, a full-blown solarbeam attack that hit the organic rock wall of Sootopolis and scorched the natural material, searing a crumbling hole in the city's defense. The Groudon waded sideways to face the Kyogre, which was forming a spout of water above where it swam.

"Not staying for this show," Brendan muttered, and told Swell to descend through the opening in the cave of Origin they had escaped through only a couple hours ago. Hesitating only slightly, Swell folded its wings and Brendan hung on for dear life as his bird shot inside the lava cavern, pulling up over the boiling, rock-strewn lake, settling on top of a pile of rocky debris. Brendan scrambled off and released May's Gallade. It looked at him in something like suspicion. Brendan had heard somewhere that ralts & co. were fairly intelligent.

"Gallade, can you find Peli?" Brendan said. The room smelled of fire and faintly, sulfur.

"Gall!" agreed the psychic type, and went bounding away over the spars of rock littering the cavern floor.

Brendan gave Swell a finger-comb of its head feathers and headed around the cave the other direction of Gallade.

"Magmas in here?" he called out, voice carrying around the cavern. "Maxie, Courtney, Tabitha?" He hopped and slid on a few chunks of rock. "I'm here to get you out!" He paused and heard a weak kind of dying wailord noise from across the room. Gallade called to Swell who hopped/flew over to help May's pokemon.

Scrambling across the uneven floor, Brendan skirted the lava and found Tabitha pinned under a big slab of rock that had fallen from the ceiling.

"Get me...out," he wheezed. His face was pale.

"Yep," Brendan said, first trying to lift the obstruction, but he couldn't raise it more than an inch on one end. "Do you have your pokemon with you?" he asked the Magma admin.

"Just over there, my camerupt's pokeball... Don't know where Mimi and Phan-Phan are," he struggled to say.

Brendan grabbed the camerupt's pokeball, an idea taking shape.

"It's fainted," Tabitha said.

"I have revives," Brendan said. "How about your leader and the other girl?" He glanced to where Gallade and Swell were working together to move a particularly large heap of crumbled rock.

"Escaped," Tabitha managed.

Brendan stood off to the side and released the camerupt, sticking a revive tablet down its throat. The hot, furry creature got to its feet. Brendan sent out Swampert next and he shushed her roar of intimidation.

"Ok, Camerupt, hit the rock with flamethrower," he told the camel pokemon.

"You insane?" Tabitha barked thinly.

"It won't hit you, it'll hit the rock as energy," Brendan said. Pokemon attacks didn't hurt humans, but they could affect natural objects to different degrees.

Camerupt's accuracy was impeccable.

"Now, ice beam, Swampert," Brendan said. "Carefully!"

The hulking creature fired the icy beam of energy at the rock.

"Flamethrower!"

Camerupt obliged.

"Ice beam! Keep it up," Brendan told the pokemon. The camerupt was obeying surprisingly well for not being his pokemon. Maybe the Magmas shared all their pokemon like they did the mightyenas.

A few more pairs of hot-and-cold later, the rock splintered. Tabitha gasped for breath. As Brendan recalled both the pokemon and put the pokeballs in his backpack, he saw the gallade and Swell had successfully unearthed something and were talking back and forth over it.

Brendan had no first-aid materials. He should have brought some.

"One second," he told Tabitha, dashing off to see what had been found.

"Swell," the bird crowed, flapping its wings a little, backing away from the rubble. Brendan peered down.

Peli's neck had broken by falling debris. Its eyes were glassy. Down and dried blood were smattered across the crumbled rocks around it.

"Thanks guys," Brendan said roughly. He tried to remember the whole blur of picking May up in the Cave earlier. Suddenly he realized that the bright blue flash had likely been Peli's protect shield. That was why Brendan had somehow escaped the falling spears of rock. It would have to have been a pretty powerful attack to shield from all of the rock. So it wasn't - hadn't been - just an HM slave.

Brendan refocused on his task at hand. Trapinch.

"Gallade, Swell, find me Trapinch!" The speedy pokemon bounded off at his command. Rushing back to the Magma, Brendan tried helping Tabitha up, but the injured admin groaned in pain and Brendan decided he'd better have a solid plan of transport before he did any experiments. Flying wouldn't be the best idea; too jerky, and this guy definitely weighed more than May.

Tabitha lay panting weakly. There was dried blood around his mouth. Was there time to hunt down Trapinch? Brendan, against his desires, thought not.

"Gallade! Swell!" he yelled. But the pokemon had found a way past the rock blocking the way down and they had disappeared down the rope ladder. "Hang on," he told Tabitha, sprinting and hurdling over rocks 90° around the room, clambering down the rope and dropping into the dark passage. Cries and the leathery flutters of zubats attracted his attention down the way, but he couldn't see much past the spot of reddish light from above.

"Gallade! Swell!... We have to clear out!" he yelled into the darkness. The zubat cries continued and Brendan picked up a few of Swell's clear calls. Brendan ran that way as fast as he dared to avoid wiping out on the uneven ground. He felt a stagnant kind of breeze, almost like a front of air, push against him, signalling an open space. Something brushed his hat and he nearly screamed, covering his head with his arms as zubat flapping and sonic hooting surrounded him.

"Ahhh! Swell!"

He could hardly make out any friendly pokemon noises over the cacophony as small furry bodies and wings smacked and brushed against him. "Gaaaaaahhhh!" A few bright flashes of aerial aces cut the darkness around him. Brendan stumbled around in the dark, shielding himself as the collisions between him and the bat pokemon eventually lessened, and his hearing picked up Gallade's ninja-like utterances of combat. Suddenly small claws grabbed onto his shoulder and leathery wings tickled his ear. "AAAAAAHHHHH!" Brendan shrieked, attempting to hit the zubat off his shoulder, but the next moment a terrible pain ripped into his mind and down through his body, pitching him forward onto his hands and knees. It was a pain like he'd felt while being poisoned, but worse, as if energy had been sucked out of him.

As the pain dissipated, he stood up, and grabbed onto familiar feathers. Swell headed the way it had come, back to the rope ladder, Gallade following it - carrying a limp vibrava in its arms. Doing a double-take as he recalled Swell, Brendan realized it must be his evolved trapinch. Brendan dug in his bag and popped the stat clip back together: it recognized the vibrava but the retarded thing was still displaying a bunch of fuzz for level and the numbers for HP were tallying up and down too fast to read anything.

"Wow," Brendan said ecstatically, recalling the vibrava. He was going to thank May's pokemon, which was staring at him observantly, but realized that would be dumb and started up the ladder. He returned to Tabitha's side as fast as he could.

"Ready now," the admin said.

"Stop talking and just breathe," Brendan told him. Ok, the strongest pokemon besides Swampert - that would be ... Swell and Gallade. Not like they were very strong, but he only had four to choose from. _Once this is all over, I'm gonna need to go on a catching spree._

Releasing Swampert (again shushing her), Brendan told her to get on all fours, Tabitha to hold still, and the other pokemon to lift him onto Swampert's wide back.

It worked surprisingly well, and Gallade and Swell struggled his weight onto the broad back of the mud fish pokemon. Now for the tough part. Brendan ripped his jacket off and managed to wrap it around Tabitha and one of Swampert's legs.

Distant roars echoed from the hole in the top of the cave, the sunlight strobing in increasingly harsh. As he was about to lead everyone down into the passageway below, Brendan realized something.

"We don't have flash, and I don't have my flashlight," Brendan murmured. "Shit. Not good."


	31. It Begins to Show

Just at the right time, a rather scrawny kid in a fedora swooped in on a bird pokemon completely foreign to Brendan and alighted in front of him. Before Brendan could say anything, the kid started babbling.

"Heya, you must be Brendan, I know May actually, met her in Mossdeep, yeah. She said she had left her pelipper here - between you and me, I don't even know what they look like, I'm kind of new - but she said you didn't know any first ai-WHOA! What happened to this guy? Groudon get him?" Riley peered at Tabitha.

_May sent someone after me? Arceus ... Well_,_ I can use him ..._

"Back off, he's in bad condition," Brendan told the kid as Tabitha tried to say something, wheezing. Getting a closer look at the kid's sharp features, Brendan saw he was maybe only a little younger than Brendan himself. "Do you have a flashlight?"

"Yeah, yeah," the kid said, pulling a slick one out of his strappy bag. "But where's the pelipper? You found it, yeah?"

"It's dead," Brendan said.

"Dead?"

Brendan gestured with his head to where it was. Riley hopped agilely over to look.

"Ooooh," Riley said, in a sick tone. "That's..."

"We need to get Tabitha here to safety," Brendan said.

"Tabitha, yeah?" Riley was confused as he backed away from the pelipper, glancing back at the gruesome sight.

"Yes, the fellow with the crushed ribs here."

"That so? Well, lead on!" Riley said hurriedly.

"You have the flashlight, down that ladder there," Brendan said.

Riley peered down. "You sure...?"

"Yes," Brendan said forcefully, impatient. He recalled Swell and sent Gallade down first, then the kid, then steadied Swampert as the hulking pokemon climbed down/was lowered awkwardly yet steadily, supported by Gallade from underneath.

"Gallade, take care of any zubats. Riley, flashlight. To the left!"

The procession headed off, Gallade knocking out any zubats with psychic attacks, Brendan shouting directions from behind as Swampert lumbered along with the injured party.

...

Professor Birch's instincts registered something as he worked on gathering 100 taillow samples in the woods by Petalburg. He considered himself pretty attuned to nature, so he expected to hear of something before the day was up.

He worked on steadily through the hours, even finding a nest with three baby taillows in it which he left undisturbed.

Humming some of ABRA's classics under his breath, he carefully filed away all the bagged samples in a compartmented case, logging his hours. He had completed a thorough analysis of the taillow/swellow Hoenn population and was now using that knowledge to compare effects of diet.

His Nav rang as he started the hour-long walk home, and he answered as his azurill hopped along happily beside him.

"Birch here," he said, and his face lit up as his daughter's voice came through. "May! What's goin' on? Did you beat Fortree's gym? ... I knew you would! You sound tired, honey ... Yes ... " He slowed his walk as May recounted to him what had been happening. "I knew something big was happening! Are you alright? Is there enough help at the League? ... Good ... Stay there as long as they tell you, May, but hurry on home when they say it's safe to..." As Birch topped the hill, the entrance to Petalburg town to his right, the quaint village of 4,000 with a big city attitude glowing softly in the twilight, he saw far north and ahead the unnatural sunlight and the fiery sky it was causing. Then, to the south, the ominous blanket of darkness, swooping clouds that made it obvious it was raining far away over the sea.

"May, I can see it even from Petalburg! You say two legendary pokemon?... Wait, May, I wish I could just let you go to sleep, but do you know where Brendan is? I'm having dinner at the Mayer's tonight and I'd like to tell Norman ... You think? ... Went? Is he there with you? ... Well, do you know where he might be? ... Why, honey?"

...

May, still feeling exhausted, bumbled over her own explanations of where a Brendan was and what he was doing. She couldn't mention Magma, or Aqua: that could make her the instigator of something that could spiral out-of-control. And honestly, she didn't want to cause the Mayers a heart attack by telling them their son was headed towards the legendary pokemon, with no plan, to capture the enemy, or at least beat the truth out of them or something. He had no plan, so who knew.

"Well, he could be here - No, I don't think he is, he went to look for his pokemon. He - um, he lost a pokemon ... well, it was stolen actually he said ... I don't really know, Dad, but he'll be fine with my gallade and Etz ... Love you, too ... I will."

May tossed her Nav back in her bag. Telling half-truths made her tired worrying about if she had told the right half of the truth. The crowded foyer had quieted a little and she drifted off to sleep.

...

Maxie and Courtney were nearing the main land of Hoenn by this time, the sunlight still beating down on them as the sunset burned like fire. It was so intense that they had no clue if distance was lessening it, but it was.

Somehow they had both managed to recall their pokemon, and all their equipment along with the precious stone were in a black duffel bag Maxie had slung around his back. Courtney was zipping along on her golbat and Maxie was hurtling through the air on his salamence, the only flying pokemon he had strong enough to carry him and his load safely. Although comparable in size to Swampert, the salamence's skin was a tightly knit network of interlocking, light grey-blue scales, and its wide, red wings were networked with muscle. The three-pointed crests on the sides of its flattish head were reminiscent of swampert cheek spines, however, its neck was long, near like a tropius'. Flying on salamence took getting used to; the interval between each flap threw your gut up into your mouth and each downbeat of powerful wings drove it down into your feet.

A flying salamence was also very obvious from the ground, but they weren't close to their destination yet.

As they crossed the coastline just south of Lilycove, Maxie shouted to Courtney to return back to the base while he carried on. No need to risk attracting undue attention.

She obliged, veering away.

...

Around 9 p.m. emergency supplies arrived at the League, flown in by rangers. Those who had been sleeping woke again to clamber for a roll-up bed. Steven was still running his feet off orchestrating the business of it all - close the League for the next day, issue some sort of permit to skip Victory road to those who came through it tomorrow, try and keep the insistent media from spinning too many lies, start figuring out which people had family elsewhere ... He currently was talking with Ld. Flannery and Lavaridge's panel about housing refugees.

As the Elite Four handed out beds and stored more dried soup, assisted by the arrived rangers, Wallace and the two door moderators had recruited several concerned Sootopolians and were busy at taking attendance.

Steven had designated his back room as the official lunch break room for the assistants, so Wallace was tallying a long spreadsheet there, the other Sootopolians looking on.

"Jude Alakras... Martha Alakras... The Heopens... Wait, Eddie, Rob and Fergus..." Wallace remained stoic but swallowed hard from time to time as he had to leave a space unchecked.

Finally he finished, sitting down heavily at the spot at the head of the table, running his hands along the jutting metal arms of the chair. One of the assistants got out a calculator and started adding up.

"There may be some we simply missed," one of the assistants mentioned. Silence resumed its hold on the room save for the punching of calculator buttons.

The punching ended eight minutes later.

"Well...?" Wallace said, his tone exhausted.

"Present, 1,873. MIA, 181. Confirmed eyewitness death... Only 3."

Those were amazing numbers considering the circumstances, but no one said anything.

Wallace stood.

"Thank you, everyone. Please go get a good sleep."

The assistants left, tugging heir hats or nodding goodnight to their leader.

As soon as the room was empty, Wallace took the list in his hands, reading it again. As the gym leader of four years - a long duration for a single gym leader - he inevitably knew most of his citizens. Gym leaders weren't just pokemon trainers either. Although towns were run by panels comprised of citizens, the gym leader was always a member and his vote was weighty in making each decision. As the local economy and life directly affected the gym leader's living, the leader was always a strong point of reference for making decisions.

"Wallace, go to sleep." Steven entered his back room, seeing his friend unusually slouched over the long list of the death toll. He walked to the bar at the back and offered the gym leader a glass of port. Wallace shook his head. He took off his hat and his long, kinky cerulean hair came loose. He pulled at it agitatedly.

Steven plunked himself down across from him.

"Wallace. Go to bed. I've got quarters right there, through that door. It's not much but you need everything you can get."

Wallace looked up at him, his long, refined features looking like they held a caged sorrow.

"That's my chair anyway, friend," the champion said, failing to elicit any sort of reaction. Steven got up and hauled Wallace off the chair. The gym leader nodded faintly at Steven and retreated to the designated bedroom, closing the door behind him.

Steven stuffed his hands in his pockets and left the room. After having a look at the death toll. It wasn't bad, but people had died. Steven knew that, but most of the tightness in his chest was for how Wallace was shouldering it ... and if Sootopolis could be saved.


	32. The Professor and the Historian

Brendan, Riley and all accompanying them made it out of the Cave in half an hour. Tabitha's breaths were laboured. Almost a mile south, the legendaries were still at large. A torrent of water twisted into the air, called up by the Kyogre, came hurtling towards the Groudon, which summoned a crackling web of lightning that lit up the sky. The thunder attack blasted into the stream of energy-stacked water heading for the Groudon, and the two attacks burst in an exothermic display that lit up the night and blasted away a chunk of Sootopolis' upper wall.

Orca-like moaning sounded as the hulk of the Kyogre briefly breached the water, and the near 40-foot Groudon roared in answer, a deep bellow.

"...here?" was all Riley heard of what Brendan said over the racket.

"What?" Riley shouted. Night had fallen, and the blanket of storm-heavy clouds seemed to be growing in domination of the sky. The Groudon no longer had sunlight to help it.

"I said, what was that bird pokemon you came on and is it big enough to get Tabitha out of here," Brendan yelled back, as the wind blasted him and everyone else with a curtain of rain.

"Go, Stare!" Riley released his staraptor. It was more stout than Swell, with a dark downy zigzag across its breast and a red-tipped crest that hawked over its intense stare. It looked more fierce than Swell looked smart.

"Yeah," Brendan said. "Help me, will you?"

The boys laboured for a short time tying Tabitha onto the Sinnoh-native pokemon. Goosebumps covered Brendan's exposed arms as the outermost edge of Kyogre's summoned storm began to weep down on them.

Brendan didn't have time to congratulate or thank anyone.

"Riley, we'll ride my swellow," he shouted over the gale, releasing the bird and recalling Gallade. The boys struggled on, Riley feeling the lean ride strange and uncomfortable. "Ok, tell your bird to follow us," Brendan told the kid. Riley tugged his fedora securely on and turned around to Stare.

"Stare! Fly nicely and follow uuuuuuuuuuUUUUUS," Riley whooped as Brendan commanded Swell off the ground. Stare took off accordingly, and once Riley and Brendan got across to both birds that this was not a race, their entourage developed a steady rhythm through and out of the gale.

...

As night came on, the ancient pokemon's struggling seemed to slow; they had started off trading cascading water and brilliant grass attacks - the Groudon seemed to have a brain in not using its fire attacks - but now the Groudon had retreated into Sootopolis. The eastern portion of the volcanic wall had been blasted out in the combat. The Kyogre seemed to be simmering in the depths, the storm above it unnaturally on hold for the time being. Of course, the sunlight had faded with the advent of night. Roars and threatening calls echoed across the water occasionally, feeding some form of excitement to those in Lilycove and Mossdeep, those on the island town who had decided to stay awhile longer.

In the blanket of night far west, where news of recent events had just started to reach televisions, a soft thud and the rushing of wings disturbed the falling ash on route 113. Light from a pokeball flashed. Purposeful footsteps swept through the grass. The soot Maxie flung up was light grey against the moonless night as he headed toward the warm glow of Fallarbor's lights.

1 a.m. and Maxie wound through the silent streets of the smelter city, made it to a utilitarian cottage on Sootstep avenue. A light was on inside. Maxie entered, coming into an open design of a small dining room, kitchen and living room. Books were stacked- not shelved - along the wood panelled walls of the living room. Prof. Cozmo got up, startled, from his chair.

"Oh-Maxie - you're here, I was waiting," he started in his usual scatterbrained manner, grabbing his glasses from a little end table and wiggling them up on his nose.

"Yes," Maxie set the duffel bag down on the floor. He opened it and carefully, not without a slow grin of satisfaction, withdrew the rough, generally sphere-shaped stone from the bag. It gave off a light, burnt and red.

"Hhhhhhoh," gasped Cozmo, putting his spindly hands on the magnificent gem. "This-" he looked up at Maxie- "-straight from the Groudon's lair?"

"Yes," Maxie said. "As I have discussed with you, my friend-" his expression tightened a bit - "-potential energy. And release. Find out what kind of connection it shares with the Groudon."

"It-it's awake, then? Now?"

"Yes, if you had a television you would know. So is the Kyogre."

"The Kyogre? Did it come with a stone too?"

"I am sure, but we don't need it." Maxie's brow furrowed. "My best guess is that Aqua may have taken it. I believe they did accomplish their goal."

"B-but - what if the Kyogre defeats the Groudon, then-"

"It won't, leave that to us," Maxie said. "Once you tell me exactly what role the stone plays, I'll consider procuring the other stone. I need to know what will happen if the Groudon destroys the Kyogre, and if the Kyogre trumps the Groudon."

Maxie handed the stone to Cozmo, quite loathe to let it go.

"Take care," he said as Cozmo turned the thing over in his grip, muttering about different kinds of rocks and things. "Cozmo?"

"Oh, oh yes, definitely, it's safe, leave it to me."

"I'll be back in three days."

"Oh, oh... Okay then, yes, I will see you."

"Mm." Maxie's lips twitched. As much as he trusted Cozmo's skill - equal to what his own had been, back in the day, albeit only in a couple of fields - he also trusted Cozmo's weak nerve. Hopefully no situation would arise where it showed and cost Magma their whole operation.

There was one other loose end raging through Maxie's mind: the kids in the Cave of Origin. Namely, Brendan. After he had managed to blow a hole in their base and escaped to boot, Maxie had been concerned, but now that both had witnessed Magma's crime, they were the most dangerous liability Magma had.

Maxie had saw the girl stricken by falling rock; it was unlikely she'd survived; but he'd flown out before the boy had. The boy had either evacuated with the rest of Sootopolis, or had flown home. If the former, Magma was in deep trouble of being exposed to the League and indeed probably already had been.

Maxie needed someone to pay a visit to Steven. And he needed to get in contact with Brendan.

...

Gabby and Ty were employees of the number one news syndicate in Hoenn, counting views - GT Hoenn. The reporter-cameraman team had split from Hoenn TV several months ago and started their own channel, which had become the most trusted news source in all Hoenn. They had connections everywhere, due in part to their involvement in field trainer reporting, which was a new technique to broadcast different facets of local trainer culture by battling and interviewing common trainers.

Right now, the two intrepid newscasters were bobbing in a speedboat in the light of 2 a.m.

"Are you getting this all on tape?" Gabby, her bob whipped around her face by the breeze blowing off the sea, said to Ty, who was precariously perched at the front of the boat, camera shouldered. They were south of Mossdeep and close to some yannan tree shelter, lens towards the ancient pokemon.

"It's not like much is happening," Ty said. "The Groudon roars a bit. Silence. Roars again. We can't even see it, it's in Sootopolis..."

"We gotta get closer!" Gabby leaped at the throttle but Ty threw himself in her way. That was how they worked most of the time.

"No, no, wait till the light's better," Ty told his partner.

Gabby sniffed and popped a few JelyFigy snacks in her mouth. Ty stopped the camera and waited.

...

Steven, after receiving a few more calls and securing some spots for evacuees, retreated to Drake's sailor-pamphernalia-stuffed back room. It was a lot dinkier than the champion's, only big enough for supper for 4.

Steven got out his Nav and hooked it up to the TV on one wall, moving the disgusting carapace of some creature off the top of it, knocking down a whole bunch of other old salty shells. Steven nudged them all to the side with a foot and made the Naviface call.

On the screen, a woman with long blonde hair answered.

"Hello, Steven," she said. "Late night again?" The 27-year-old wore a loose long-sleeved black blouse and a thin black headband.

"Rather. The Kyogre and Groudon were both awoken today," Steven said, clasping his hands behind his back.

The woman pursed her full lips.

"You say it like the two trainers you fought were both beaten."

Steven smiled a little. "I don't have any energy left to be excited. All of Sootopolis' survivors were evacuated here. We have to arrange elsewhere for them to stay, talk to the media, and find a way to handle the battling pokemon."

"Which is why you called me." The woman crossed her arms. "The rest of the document, I presume?"

"Yes, if you have it done."

"Steven Stone, you get so excited over small discoveries and forget about everything else. I had this ready a month back."

"Never thought to ask," Steven said, shrugging a little. He waited while she disappeared off screen for some minutes. She was working late, too. That woman was always working on myths and legends and old things of that sort.

"Here it is," she said, returning with a sheet of paper. "It was written in the elaborated version of the old Hoenn language, with some additional figures that were too worn to be discerned. Fairly easy to decipher, however: '...That which supports the sky, where none dare to fly, roosts the ruler of the winds. Now will the storm of two abate'."

"The second two lines don't rhyme," Steven said with a grin.

"Meaning before artistry," the woman said. "I don't know what it is referring to, except the last line contains a doubled character for Kyogre and Groudon under the bar for two. The last line is not my best work, but I think it's roughly accurate."

"Thanks, Cyn," Steven said, jotting it down on the back of an old pamphlet for an anchor-cleaning company.

"You know, I did this all in my spare time. I had only a partial cipher key. It took a lot of work. I even had my phrasing specialist check it."

"What do I owe you?" Steven smiled at her. She was a reserved woman, but he knew from experience that facade fell during battle.

"A visit. Steven, it's been two years."

"You were busy with Cyrus' meddling!"

"He was hardly a threat, easily put down in a month. I've always had time, Steven. I would come visit you and see the legendaries if I were allowed."

"If it were safe. Cyn, I do owe you. Once this is all over, I'll do something about it."

She nodded flatly, with a toss of her hair.

"Really, Cyn. I've wanted to come back ever since that first field trip." Steven's face softened.

"I hope so. And cut your hair. It looks childish. You're not a kid, anymore. You were hardly one when we met."

Steven scrubbed a hand through his spiky hair. "Saving Hoenn before my hairstyle, frankly."

"Goodnight, Steven."

"Goodnight, Cyn."

The Sinnoh historian ended the call.

...

**A/N: I really am quite partial to this chapter. There's so much tension, and I stuck Gabby and Ty in there to thank them for always providing me with endless money. **

**Hm... Nah I won't mention it, but here's your clue:**

**Lol I shot a ...**


	33. Home Sweet Home

**AN: the T rating starts here. Jus' saying. and Here's some hotgingermessshipping for you.**

* * *

Magma's base had a rec room of sorts. A pool table, a fridge, a big TV and some couches.

Verbal reports of the developments around Sootopolis were beginning to be aired. Courtney and Shelley were watching the screen and some grunts were horsing around loudly in the background.

"I'm surprised you didn't try to escape," Courtney said in her lowish voice to the redhead, who had been given some black pants and a T-shirt to wear, to keep her from being picked on.

"Oh," Shelley said, making a flopping arm motion, "I'll stay to my first paycheque. Looks like Archie did fine without me."

"Uh-huh." Courtney didn't know Maxie's ulterior motives with keeping Shelley here. But she was sure he had some. He was probably doing things his usual way, and eventually Shelley would probably do whatever it was he had for her to do.

On the spur of the moment, Courtney told Shelley as much. "He has something in mind for you, Maxie does."

"Oh?" Shelley raised an eyebrow, finger-combing her long curls. "Besides being leverage?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Courtney said. "When I joined... It wasn't an outright request to conform to Magma's standards. It started as ... an interest. A shared interest. Joining Magma happened after a while." Courtney shrugged. "It's not a bad thing."

Shelley decided she didn't want to think about things like that now. "Why all this about the Cave of Origin and waking up the Groudon?" she asked instead. "Why does Magma do what they do?"

"What would have happened if Kyogre woke up and there was nothing to combat it?" Courtney said. The statement hung. The petite woman scratched her neck, angry at herself for being Shelley's friend one moment and loyal to Maxie the next.

The door to the rec room opened a few minutes later and Maxie stepped in, nodding as Courtney turned to look at him. "You should retire for the night, get rested," he told her. "And quiet down," he ordered the grunts.

"Hey, when do we get to go out and do something next?" a grunt, freshly dropped-out of trainer's school, asked.

"Tomorrow. And something delicate for you as well, Courtney. Be up by 5."

"Yes sir." Courtney left the room. Maxie's gaze fell on Shelley, who had been watching him the whole time.

"My dear." Maxie nodded toward the door and Shelley got up and followed him out. She saw he had a special remote in his hand which allowed him to open the barriers between rooms and bypass the system of floor plates. If she took it, she could probably escape. But she didn't want to.

They arrived in the room Brendan had been quizzed in days earlier. Shelley took a seat and Maxie also, on the other side. He looked at her with his prismatic brown eyes. They twisted the light in every which way, appearing black sometimes, or red, or brown.

"You're still here," he stated.

"Yes," Shelley said.

"Are you enjoying it?"

Shelley shrugged. "No. It's kind of boring." She crossed her legs.

"You could go out and about with me, like Courtney does," Maxie said. He still wore his trench-coat-like jacket.

"I don't know if I really care about what you do," Shelley said, examining her cuticles. She had a fair amount of confidence now. He wouldn't harm her now that she was here, she thought.

"It's more exciting than Aqua's ventures. Hm," Maxie snorted, taking off his coat, revealing a turtleneck dark grey sweater. Shelley couldn't help noticing his broad shoulders and defined chest. "I suppose Archie is happy, having created such a disturbance?" Maxie continued.

"I guess. He won't stop till flooding has got the Mainland's attention."

Maxie's half-smile widened as he chuckled a little. "And then, once he does, pfft," Maxie said, leaning forward and making a motion with his fingers like he was pinching a candle out.

"How would you know?"

"I have vast experience, compared to little Archie."

"Like what kind of experience?"

"It's only pertinent to people who share the same goals as me." Maxie got up and walked around to the Aqua admin's side of the table. Shelley looked up at him, the debonair grace he gave off charming her. He looked intently at her, something hidden in his gaze.

She realized how small and foolish Archie must seem, the loud-mouthed rebel next to this mysterious man. If only for a moment. But in that moment Maxie had drawn her up in his arms and pulled her into his hot embrace and . . . .

She pulled away a few seconds of astonishment later, her lips - her lips - he had kissed her? He _had_ kissed her, and there was a soft smirk on his face. Shelley had had a few beaus before but they had all been emotional flings-

"Go and get some sleep," Maxie said, seeing her expression.

"I-I-you-how old are you?" She pushed him away, but he only was obliged to budge an inch.

"37," he said.

Shelley herself was 25. She huffed out of the room as Maxie gave her a little push on the back, the line of his chin and the sweep of his long hair and the strength of his shoulders remaining in her mind.

...

Swell, physically exhausted, carried its double load to the field outside of Oldale town. It was spent from the 3-hour flight; Riley's Poketch said 2:43 a.m. Stare landed with a heavier thud than Swell. Brendan stumbled off Swell, his legs stiff and sore, and blundered over to Tabitha in the dark. The admin was still breathing.

"Come on you strange pokemon, come on," Brendan tempted Stare through the long field towards the hamlet of Littleroot. The bird stalked along behind him. Swell picked itself up, shaking its feathers out, and meekly called Riley along. The vociferous kid didn't have any stamina left to comment on the long ride or the cramping of his legs, just panted behind the lean dash of navy blue and blood red plumage Swell was.

Brendan spilled into his home about ten minutes' walk later. Taking a deep, deep inhale of the familiar scent, he nearly collapsed in a mixture of fatigue and relief. The kitchen was dark but Brendan knew the house and flipped the lights on by feel and beckoned the whole entourage in. Riley proceeded to wheel over to the couch in front of the fireplace and plop down.

"Man! You killed me there, Brendan!"

"We're both dead as shit," Brendan agreed.

"Watch your mouth," floated a groggy voice from upstairs. His mom appeared at the top of the wooden stairs. Like the Fallarbor houses, the houses in Littleroot were mostly made of wood. "Brendan ... What," she managed, wearing a skitty-patterned robe.

"Hi mom, sorry I know it's late - early - but this guy needs some help, he can use my room," Brendan said, somehow getting Stare to sit, or perch or something on the floor.

"Oh!" Mrs Mayer exclaimed, still half-asleep, rushing towards the man. Her nurse's instincts kicked in (she worked all Friday, Saturday, Sunday in the hospital in Petalburg). Brendan let her take over once he tempted Stare up the stairs with a pokeblock and dumped the Magma admin on his own bed.

Returning downstairs, Brendan presented Swell with two green pokeblocks, the real deal, not the small dispenser pieces. The bird gobbled them down and ruffled itself into a sleeping position, head tucked under wing, by the fireplace. It was smouldering, and Brendan poked it a bit as Riley started to snore. Then Brendan couldn't hold himself up any longer. During the long flight, he'd become aware of a low undercurrent sensation of weakness. The energy weakness thing. Maybe sleep would eradicate that. He dragged Riley, who was smaller than him, onto the love seat, and took his place on the couch. And then, Brendan Mayer was lost to this world and trapped in his mind's.

...

Steven had just woken up from his 5-hour sleep. It was 5:48 a.m. He rushed to the front foyer (he'd slept on the low red leather couch in the main area of his back room) to make sure everything was as it had been. It was. His wristband dinged, signalling a caller at the back entrance. Steven hurried back and let the visitor in - almost. He recognized the red and black Magma colours.

"You-" Steven started in astonishment.

"Greetings champion Stone. I am sorry to interrupt at this hour, but we feel it necessary to keep in contact, especially now."

Steven was about to close the door, then changed his mind. It would be easier to detain the girl inside.

"Sit," he commanded her, and she sat at his long polished metal table. He remained standing.

"We would like to know what are your plans for dealing with this situation, since it was not prevented from occurring," Courtney said.

"Prevented from occurring?!" Steven nearly spluttered. "Where were you and Magma while Aqua was in Mossdeep, waking the Kyogre?"

"We didn't reach news of their endeavours in Mossdeep. We were still busy in Meteor Falls. I am sure you heard of the trouble they caused, but we were the ones who returned Professor Cozmo and his assistants to safety. You may ask them if you are unsure. We tried to get Aqua's target out of their leader, Archie, but we were unable to pinpoint an exact location. We then took preventative steps, leaving protection of the Seafloor Cavern to Devon, as we heard their objective was." Shelley had mentioned it to Courtney and Courtney to Maxie.

"And instead you broke into the government protected historical site, awakening the Groudon, and causing mass destruction! And putting two young trainers in danger!"

Courtney thought fast. Maxie hasn't briefed her on how to answer that.

"I am deeply sorry for that. I hope we have not caused them any harm, but they were interfering-"

"As anyone in their right minds would! You caused Sootopolis' evacuation, displaced two thousand people-"

"Champion Stone, I implore you, answer me this: do you have a pokemon in your control that matches the Kyogre's power?"

"Of course not."

"Then I ask you this also: what would have happened to Sootopolis without the Groudon to hold off the Kyogre, as it does now?"

Steven clasped his hands behind his back and looked at the Magma's honestly concerned expression. He abruptly started pacing. After a few minutes, he stopped.

"I must ... apologize. I see your point. You should have requested permission."

"I understand," Courtney acknowledged, nodding submissively.

Steven sighed. "What are your numbers?"

Courtney looked up. "Our numbers? We have three strongest members, including our leader Maxie, and about twenty loyal to stopping Aqua's havoc."

"Do you have any enlightened ideas of what to do next?"

"No. That's why I am here."

"Come with me," Steven said, standing and beckoning her.


	34. An Asset

"I need to do something," May was explaining quietly to Sidney at the 'breakfast bar' that the merchandise counter had become. Some of the Sootopolians were up and drinking coffee, not disturbing those who still slept. Phoebe was going among the awake ones who had a destination secured for them, working out logistics of how they would get there and how they would stay in contact.

Although the sun was rising, the dark of the night seemed to have shrunk and condensed over the Kyogre and rain still swept down. However, the sun's young rays seemed like they were starting to intensify already, and the two legendaries were roaring like they were gearing up for a day of battle.

"You just came from the cave, I heard," the guy with the mohawk said. "You were there when it all happened."

"Yes," May said. She had a hollow feeling she had rather expected in her gut. Brendan had sent her a message on her Nav. "Sry. Peli is dead." On top of that, her right arm was bruised and her side was scratched, although the ointment from last night had helped.

"You should just hang out. Wait till everyone's healed up and chill for a bit."

May shook her head. "One of my pokemon died in there."

"Died?" Sidney's big eyes opened wider. He wore the vest and dress shirt but loose flannel lounge pants.

"Yeah. Well, the Groudon decimated the cave. Rock went everywhere."

"Wow."

May could tell he was more sorry for her than anything.

"Battle me," she told him.

"I can't - the rest of the Elite Four -"

"Off the record. Now. Lend me two of your pokemon. Two on two."

"You're kidding-"

"No. I'll show you. I can help you guys, since Brendan's probably run off again."

"Isn't he your friend?"

"Not really," May rolled her eyes a bit in frustration. "Come on." She marched through the sleeping bodies out into the frigid morning. Where she was getting this drive from, she didn't know, but it was sure helping her stick her foot in the door. Actually, maybe she did know. Her pokemon had been killed, and it was her chance to show Brendan he was a jerk, and not only according to her.

"So," Sidney shuffled his stance on the scruffy grass, glancing out over the ocean at the gathering storm and the rallying sun, "Ok. Ok. Maybe we both need this. Here's your two. Here's my two. They're about equal."

"Alright," May said.

"Ok. Welcome, challenger! ... Wait, don't have to do it. Hm, hm...I'm Sidney ... like that look ... give me a good match ... " He got out a paper and quickly scribbled on it. "Looking real good ... Ok, let's enjoy a battle that can only be staged outside the Pokémon League!"

Sidney punched the air and released his favorite, his absol. He handed May the page, which had her two pokemon's attacks written on them. May released the cacturne first.

May chose leech seed, but Absol went first. The furred white pokemon hit the cacturne with an aerial ace and the cactus pokemon returned with a leech seed. The health sapped by leech seed gave the cacturne just enough to go on that it took another hit and used payback, bringing down Absol to the red. Both trainers' status clips were beeping. Sidney's next aerial ace KO'd the cacturne, but the leech seed, still in effect, gobbled the last of Absol's HP.

"Impressive! Ok, go my mightyena!"

"And my second as well!" May released a shiftry with a full-grown mane of cotton-like tufts.

Again, Sidney's pokemon was faster and hit the shiftry with a veil of dusty energy that lowered its accuracy. May decided not to use taunt; that would be a sore waste if this shiftry didn't have good defence. Instead, she went for swagger, which raised the mightyena's attack but also confused it. When the mightyena went for the crunch attack, the spread of dark energy backlashed and it hurt itself. May wasn't going to fool around with stats any more.

"Extrasensory!" she told the shiftry, and with a rattling psychic energy pervading the mightyena's limbs, the attack knocked a quarter of the wolf pokemon's HP down.

"Mightyena, crunch!" Sidney ordered. Again, the confusion set in and the mightyena injured itself.

"Extrasensory!" May urged. Another psychic attack hit fair and square. There were faces peering out from the windows by now.

"Mightyena! ... Crunch!" The wolf snapped out of confusion and blasted the shiftry with dark energy, removing about a third of its HP. The next extrasensory from the shiftry missed. May knew she had to be careful. The mightyena's attack was still high.

"Double-edge! Finish it!"

Mightyena's soaring, slicing arcs of energy bounded out to hit both it and the shiftry - but not quite knocking out either. Sidney tightened his fists as May told the shiftry to go for the ... Not extrasensory, but faint attack. That was a move that never missed.

The mightyena fainted and the match was narrowly May's. Her heart was pounding from actually battling a member of the Elite Four-and winning, barely-as she returned the pokeballs.

"Great battle skills, great strategies," Sidney said. "Wow, thought you would go for the extrasensory at the end. Not many trainers still have their heads on straight when victory is a move away! You used payback and leech seed with great timing, too."

May nodded, hoping he would stop praising her.

"Of course, a real battle is a whole other matter. But that was amazing for pokemon you don't know the stats of," he finished. They went back inside and healed up Sidney's pokemon.

Steven, along with Glacia (looking a bit indignant) and Drake, emerged from the door at the back of the foyer, Courtney in tow. May jumped at the sight of her.

"Get her out!" she yelled, quickly cutting herself off as some of the sleepers muttered or blearily opened their eyes. Stepping around the human obstacles, Steven beckoned Sidney and May to follow.

Horrified and bemused that he allowed Courtney in, she let Sidney be a buffer between the Magma and her as she followed them outside, where Phoebe was just seeing a family off as a swellow lent by Winona carried them to Mossdeep. Although that island was under evacuation alert, the northeastern part had been vacated by people with family on the main land of Hoenn, and they had reserved that space for Sootopolians.

"Alright, everyone," Steven began as Phoebe joined them inquisitively. May was doubly confused, for it just occurred to her that Steven, because he had assembled the Elite Four and was ordering them about - why, he was probably the champion! _I am so thick_, May thought, assuming he just had connections... Now that she realized that, she held her tongue about the enemy in their midst. Maybe that was what Brendan had thought of when he started asking about Steven back in Sootopolis. _Figures_.

"This is our guest, Courtney of team Magma," Steven introduced the short woman. Sidney looked surprised, while Phoebe's expression was excitement.

"You woke the Groudon up?" Phoebe gushed.

"It was necessary," Courtney replied.

As Glacia was about to say something scathing, Steven spoke.

"Courtney has told me that they did wake up the Groudon. She has also told me they did it because otherwise, the Kyogre, with no strong pokemon to combat it, would have..."

"Destroyed Sootopolis and possibly Hoenn, much quicker than it could now," Courtney finished.

"Please give this thought and speak now," Steven resumed, "if you have any concerns."

"_I_ am concerned!" May said, restraining her accusations. "What you did was terrible! You said you were stopping Aqua! If you had, you would _never_ had needed to awaken the Groudon! In that cave, your boss was chipping the stone out of the wall like it was a bunch of rare candies rolled into one! And you left us to be crushed!" May crossed her arms. She saw Courtney pale a bit under her foundation, her ability to notice such a thing thanks to Rosa. Past experience. Rosa had become a makeup guru and was always worrying...

"Like I have said, we didn't expect trainers to interfere and we were not prepared to properly take care of the complications. We didn't save ourselves in time, in fact. One of our team members... He was crushed in the Cave, and it is too dangerous to go back for him as yet. As for what you said about taking care of Aqua, we left that to Devon, as they had already planned something."

"If you had asked permission first, perhaps both sides would be intact," Steven told Courtney. "I agree with May, it was a terrible execution of a good decision. And wherever you are getting information about Devon from-" his gaze narrowed- "-I'd prefer you close down that connection. If you need to know anything, ask me."

_A good decision_! May raged inside._ I thought Steven was better than this! If he had been in the Cave, he would've seen_... None of the Magmas were acting like they were trying to do something good.

"But as Courtney has expressed Magma's willingness to aid us in our efforts to resolve the coming storm, I believe we should accept. We are only five," Steven resumed.

"Six," May said staunchly.

"I battled her, she's good," Sidney said, jerking a thumb at May. "And yeah, I guess we could use help."

"Of course!" Phoebe chimed in. "I mean honestly. If I knew where a legendary was, I would go and wake it up just to see what would happen!"

"You would," Glacia said tightly. "I say we proceed with caution."

"Aye," Drake agreed.

"And you as well, May?"

"Yes," May said, not bothering to not glare at Courtney. Peli was dead because of that girl and her friends.

"Alright," Steven said. "We now have a challenge before us - to defeat the legendaries simultaneously, or to figure out what the other part of the old document that first described their locations means."

Everyone was interested in the latter half and Steven read the clue aloud.

"Some sort of tower or high point," Glacia said. "There are lots of ruins around Hoenn with that feature, though."

"Mt. Pyre, the desert ruins, Mt. Chimney, the ruins by the old abandoned ship on route 131 are impressive as well; there are similar ones by Dewford too," Drake said.

"Magma has no knowledge in this area, so it is up to you to decide," Courtney said.

"There's nothing in Mt. Pyre," Phoebe said. "I've been all over that place!"

"The desert ruins have been completely explored, but that was awhile ago. I say the big pillar that everyone gave up on by Pacifidlog!" Sidney said.

"That, or the spires by Dewford," Glacia mused.

"Ok, who says the ruins by Pacifidlog?" Steven asked. Sidney and Phoebe's hands went up. "And by Dewford, Drake and Glacia?" They nodded. "Alright, we'll have to investigate both places. The very top of them. Be prepared for anything; an inscription, hidden artifacts, anything. Courtney, we need Magma to monitor the Kyogre and Groudon, send me updates, and watch for where Aqua might next surface. I'm not going to involve you in my search, as it may prove to yield compromising material. Please do not tell the media anything more than what they are already saying."

"Definitely. Thank you, champion Stone, and everyone else, for understanding. I will report to our leader and we will begin, or continue to do, everything you've outlined." Courtney registered Steven's Nav, bid the group goodbye, and flew off on her golbat. May tried not to blush, hearing that Steven Stone was indeed the champion and she'd assumed he was just some guy taking over his dad's company before.

...

Courtney would have to circumnavigate the ancient pokemon, which were going at it again. Kyogre seemed to be increasing the thundershowers, more strokes of dark clouds sweeping south and expanding outwards. But as it sought to invade the Groudon's shelter in Sootopolis, throwing jets of energy-infused water spout attacks at the gap in the volcanic wall, the Groudon called a crackling thunder attack down over the Kyogre. The sunlight intensified around it, and it waded partially out of the city as the drought-like weather strove to banish the Kyogre's storm. Although the southward water-bound collection of houses called the town of Pacifidlog was beginning to experience flooding under the hood of the rain storm, the harsh sunlight would prove to be the wider-spread affliction, and Mossdeep was already feeling the heat.

...

Steven had formally abolished the notion of somehow defeating the legendaries in a pokemon battle. "Alright Sidney, since I don't trust you alone with Phoebe, you can stay here and keep things under control."

"Awwwww," Sidney moaned in a no-fair tone.

"And May, you can go with Phoebe. Glacia and Drake, get what you need and take off."

"See you later," Glacia nodded as the older two of the Four headed purposefully back indoors, Sidney trailing them, making ridiculous sad faces at Phoebe. The girl in the bandeau and flower skirt giggled.

"See what I mean," Steven said, raising an eyebrow at May. May timidly laughed, still struck by the fact that he was Champion. "Girls, give me a few minutes and I'll be along with you. I have to give Wallace some instructions. Phoebe, get dressed." He gave her a dictator's eye. "Pretend you're late for your wedding."

"I geeeeet it," she said, tromping back inside.

As Steven turned May said,

"Wait. Uh - Steven - do you really trust Magma?"

"I don't trust them, _per se_, but I would list them as an asset."

"Ok." May nodded. She didn't want to mention anything Brendan said about them kidnapping people and aiming for the powers of the big red stone. It could have been him blowing hot air to get her involved, so although May did mostly believe those things, there was no reason for anyone else to.

...


	35. Not One

As Steven entered the packed, stirring foyer, where Sidney was sorting through notes and lists of people, trying to figure out who was going where and who had a flying pokemon to do so, and if they would at all with the ancients out there, a heated conversation was progressing between a red-in-the-face father, a crying mother, and Sootopolis' gym leader.

"... supposed to be our leader! How could you not check every building before you left the place?!" the father yelled.

"There wasn't time, if we had stayed longer surely-"

"Maybe you should have had a plan! A plan of evacuation! I'm sure you had time, sitting around in your gym-"

"That's my job," Wallace said, quickly and tightly.

"At least you'll lose it along with us! We shouldn't have trusted you, you cost us Dave-"

"My son could still be in the neighbor's house," sobbed the mother as Wallace looked from one to the other. "What are you going to do about it?"

"No one can go back there-"

"So you're leaving Dave - my son - and all our family," he gestured around the foyer, "- to be killed by some legendary pokemon! Just because you're safe," the father accused Wallace, stringing in curses.

The gym leader looked like he was about to reply but then whirled and marched through the private door at the back of the room. The Sootopolians looked on.

"See? No responsibility for the deaths he's caused!" The enraged man threw his hands in the air.

"Quieter, please," Steven said, shouldering through the attentive crowd, in the doors after Wallace.

...

Steven's back room was empty. He stopped for a moment and quickly texted Phoebe's Nav to say go on without him. There was too much here the Champion needed to deal with.

He cautiously entered the small sleeping quarters; attached was a small ensuite. The door was open and the polished sconce lights were on over the sink. Wallace had curled his tall figure over, facing the mirror, hands pressing white against the counter, shaking.

"Wallace," Steven said. The word started out forcefully and slid into silence as Wallace glanced at him in the mirror for a second. His expression was one of... Steven thought, terror. Wallace was never terrified. Never.

Wallace looked away as the Champion came to his side. The gym leader collapsed on an elbow, dry heaving.

"It's - it's not you, Wallace, not your fault..." Steven said, half in shock.

"I know," Wallace gasped. "But it's my - responsibility." Still shaking uncontrollably, he gripped the edge of the countertop, letting his head drop forward onto the mirror's surface, nausea forcing empty retching.

Steven walked out. He was too stunned to face his friend. He spent a good few minutes pacing the length of his grand table, leaving the door to the bedroom open. Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, turn. Step, step, step, step, step, step, step, turn.

He walked back in. Wallace was curled over on the floor, breaths quick and under pressure. The champion hoisted his friend to his feet and put him against the wall. All the blood was gone from Wallace's face as he panted and his eyes darted vacantly around the room. His chest jerked up and down.

"At the end of the day, Wallace," Steven said, "yes, they did trust you. Can you say they shouldn't have? No! It was their choice to trust you, and you took that trust and made the city grow. If they didn't want you to save as many lives as you did yesterday, they shouldn't have elected you to the panel. It was your responsibility, and you were responsible, so now it's their fault."

"For what," Wallace gasped. Steven held him pinned.

"For choosing a leader willing to hope and shoulder failed hope. Empathy ... over efficiency. You left the possibility of many being saved open, knowing not all would."

"Didn't know it was that, it would feel like this," Wallace said. His breathing relaxed the slightest bit. "But it is true, Steven." His expression twisted. "What was said. You know it is true. Every house - there wasn't time - but there might have been-"

"...Yes," Steven said softly. He stepped away and Wallace leaned powerlessly against the wall.

"I gave Dave his first pokemon, a spheal, I - I -" Wallace slid down the wall into a tangle of limbs and wisps of hair escaped from his white beret.

Steven backed out. They needed to stay strong. Seeing his friend like this wouldn't help.

"It isn't like I would have forgotten him, and everyone else still in - still in there - if - if -" The sentence remained unfinished and Steven left, returning down the long hall to the foyer.

It was something every great leader had to face; the realization of being human, mortal, at the time when everyone expected you to be their saviour. Most people never truly had that epiphany. Most people, instead, pointed fingers at those who failed the same way as they themselves would in the same situation.

When Steven re-entered the foyer, the angry man and his wife were gone, and Sidney came back in to call the next departing family on his list.

...

Brendan felt like he was rushing up through thick torrents of ocean water as he woke the next morning. Bolting upright, he looked around frantically before remembering what had happened last night. Swell was still nested by the fire; Riley's hat was on the love seat but not the kid himself. Brendan went and grabbed some Hon-Pretz pretzels from the kitchen cupboard and sat back down on the couch to eat them, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He took his glasses from the mantle and put them back on.

His dream was fuzzy, all fire and impending danger, one of those endless dreams you thought you were never going to get out of when you were actually dreaming. What little sleep he'd gotten hadn't helped the undercurrent-of-weakness feeling either. He still wondered what that pain had been in the Cave when the zubat had been attacking his shoulder. Probably had something to do with that, but the only wounds on him were some bloody dashes on his back.

Quietly checking in on Tabitha to make sure the man hadn't escaped, Brendan wandered outside, the Hon-Pretz still in hand.

Riley was standing by a flowerbed, talking to his Nav. Brendan peered over his shoulder at the Naviface call, stuffing some of the straight, crunchy snacks in his mouth.

...

As May waited outside, nervously wondering what part of the growing storm the trip to these ruins would land them, her Nav rang. She answered the Naviface call; it was Riley.

"Heya May, how are you doing," the kid said, missing his fedora, showing off his bedhead of dark purple hair.

"Not too bad Riley - did you make it to the Cave safely?"

"Yep, yep I did - Brendan was there and guess what, we took this injured guy and strapped him to my bird and we flew for like twelve hours and got here-" Riley gave May a shaky pan of Littleroot - "-to this town, where Brendan lives, and his mom healed up Tabitha - that's the injured guy's name - well at least I think she did, yep, and but May-"

"Wait, wait - you're in Littleroot?"

"Hmmmm, I dunno, it's just where Brendan lives. Hey! Oh yeah, May, I think Brendan texted you to say that your bird, well, we didn't get it. It was kinda... Dead. Yeah."

"Yes, he texted me. Tell him to get his butt back here to give me my Gallade."

At that moment, Brendan appeared in the frame, over Riley's shoulder, hat and glasses as usual, stuffing his face.

"Brendan! How are you going to get Gallade back to me from Littleroot?"

"A thank you would be nice, as I endangered my life to find Peli," Brendan said through a mouthful of Hon-Pretz. "But yeah. I'll think of something, Gallade was a big help. So."

May sighed to herself.

"So May," Riley continued, "I was just calling to say it's been great, but because of all this ancient Pokemon stuff, my mom wants me to go back to Sinnoh. So I gotta go."

"What?"

"Yeah, I'm leaving pretty soon, it's a flight to Lilycove and then a long boat ride. You know moms, just want you to be safe."

"Yeah, I get it."

"It was really fun and I learned more about all your pokemon in Hoenn! I got my azumarill and swalot now to show off in Sinnoh! So yeah, see you."

"See you, Riley."

The call ended.

May leaned back against a tall pinen tree. Of course she understood. But - but ... Screw it all, wasn't there one friend, couldn't there be one trainer in all of Hoenn who actually stuck with her?


	36. That Kid's Pokemon

After Maxie briefed Courtney on her mission to the League, he went to the small (relative to his experience) lab in the northwestern corner of the rambling, underground hideout. He had expected people to come about investigating by now. As Mauville's generators were based here, it was easy to power scientific machinery and whatever electronics you wished. But apparently no one above ground had noticed the usage increase or, if they had, didn't think it strange.

The three men he had working in the lab all had different shifts, although they stayed in the base when off-duty to avoid drawing attention with their coming and going. Right now only two were at work; one, Dr. Syder, a former coworker of Maxie's, and the other a student of his.

"Doctor," Maxie greeted the man as he took a white coat and shrugged it on, coming to join the two by a file filled with samples. In a cage on the other side of the room was a grunt's zubat. "Anything?"

"Not yet, Dr. Aurus-"

"Just Maxie now," the Magma leader put in, flinching slightly at the use of his old title.

"I apologize. Maxie, we're on the last of the pokemon Magma actually owns."

"Totalling?"

"78. The few who show an increased propensity to take in energy do not have a specific biological indicator. We took blood samples if the vismaxum responded abnormally to testing. But even in the ones who did show fluctuation in expected response, the fluctuation was very small."

"Hm," Maxie said, looking at the graph on the computer screen that the assistant was typing numbers into. "There's two more here." He put an ultra ball and a pokeball on the white counter. "Then we may have to go into the wild to find this virus. If only I had Devon . . . this could be accomplished much faster . . . but you are doing a fine job. Everything looks in order."

Dr. Syder nodded in thanks. "We'll go ahead and test these." While the assistant recalled the zubat and put it in a tray of the already examined pokeballs, Dr. Syder released the one in the pokeball - Brendan's nuzleaf. "It's fainted," he observed, but Maxie had already gotten a revive tablet from the plastic set of drawers along one wall. As Xense slowly regained its senses, Dr. Syder put it on a clear table and attached sensors to it, preparing a XPneedle that was wired from a small box-like mechanism with a light on the side. Much like rare candies, XPneedles delivered potential energy, the sort that pokemon lived and fought on, in adjustable doses. They were strictly for research and medical purposes and could only be bought with a lot of correct paperwork.

Expecting to see the normal increase of the JND for a pokemon above level 20, the sensors' LCD instead jumped to a high peak and then simmered down again. No reactions so far had peaked so high before coming back down.

"What was the peak?" Dr. Syder asked his assistant excitedly.

"That kid's pokemon," Maxie said under his breath. "That kid."

"About twice anything we've seen yet," the assistant said, clicking away at the computer. Maxie took the remaining ultra ball off the counter.

"I assume we've found the exemplar," he said.

"It appears so. It would seem we have trumped the odds of the 0.0046 % chance I read in the latest Science from Sinnoh, if this does prove to be it," Syder said as the nuzleaf hooted hollowly, suspiciously at him.

"That article also reported that the virus is eradicated by the pokemon's immune system in less than a few days, so get on it," Maxie said.

"Gladly," Syder responded.

...

Courtney was waiting in her leader's one-on-one conference room that had been shared by Brendan and Shelley and other people of significance. Maxie entered and they both sat. He could tell from his second-in-command's expression that it had been successful.

Courtney told him as much.

"Good. I knew Steven would see sense. He was always rather eager to see the best in things, unlike his father." Maxie looked back at Courtney. "To what extent is he allowing us to play a role?"

"He and the Elite Four, along with that girl May who was at the Weather Institute and the Cave of Origin, are going to look for ruins mentioned in the other part of the ancient document."

"The one that told where the Kyogre was?"

"I assumed so. Steven wants us to monitor the legendaries and find Aqua."

"I've already sent the grunts down along the eastern routes. They should be able to find and stop Aqua. And monitoring the legendaries won't be hard. I'm planning to take a look later myself; although GT Hoenn already has some impressive close-ups."

"So... You're not interested in the ruins the League is investigating? At all?"

"If they find something, they find something," Maxie said dismissively.

"They also said to cut our ties with Devon."

"Alright."

Courtney knew Maxie meant the exact opposite by his deadbeat expression.

"If you're tired," he resumed, "rest. But if not, you can go after the grunts down route 110. Aqua is most likely to show up at Slateport first. Actually-" Maxie leaned forward as he thought of something, "-did we get any identification off Brendan Mayer before he left us?"

"His trainer ID, yes," Courtney answered.

"Before you do anything, find where he lives and text it to me."

"Yessir."

"Thank you, Courtney. I have raised your pay."

"Thanks," she said, surprised, as she got up and left. That was no doubt due to Tabitha's absence. Courtney believed he had died in the operation; an accident. She had asked Maxie about going back, but of course it was too dangerous. Nevertheless, she didn't feel very good about it.

Fortunately, Courtney was one of those people who are excellent at focusing in on the task at hand, and she exercised this talent as she used her administrative credentials to find out where exactly trainer no. 135643 lived.

...

Brendan's mom was conducting the interrogation in the kitchen. Brendan knew he was cornered until she decided to let him out and tried to make everything sound better than it was. They'd already gone over who he'd been with and what he'd been doing in the Cave of Origin.

"So we got to the League safely, and the Elite Four were there to help out and everything seemed pretty much under control-" Mrs Mayer gave him the Look at 'under control'- "-and I told Champion Stone everything that happened."

"That's a fine story, but what's the man with the broken ribs doing in your room?" Moms know exactly how to crush you under the weight of their attention. It was different, but just as unpleasant, as being under Glacia's scrutiny.

"I saw him fall in the Cave so I went back to get him, and check for May's pokemon too," Brendan said, hoping he would get away with not telling her that-

"Did you get permission from the Champion, or anyone?"

Nope.

"Uh, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I just went because I knew it was pretty critical - and May sent Riley, the guy who was with me, after me too, so it's not just-"

"She probably did that because she knew you wouldn't listen to reason, Brendan Sean." Uh-oh. Murder by Middle Name. "I don't think your father and I should have ever let you choose an experience period. We should have out you right back in school. Have you been taking your medicine?"

"No," Brendan said pleadingly. "Not all the time. But sometimes!"

Mrs Mayer sighed. "You're not heading off again until I talk to your father. Meanwhile, exactly who is this man so I can find his family?"

"Um, I can't really tell you, I just need to talk to him..."

"I'm sure the hospital in Petalburg will be able to find out," Mrs Mayer said, picking her Nav off the counter and opening it.

"No!" Brendan dove for the Nav. He knew the number was on speed dial, being her workplace. Successfully, he snatched the Nav out of her hand as she let out an exclamation of surprise.

"What's gotten into you?" Mrs Mayer exclaimed. She held out her hand to take it back, but her son held on to it.

"Mom, can we wait until Dad gets home at least? It's really important and I haven't told anyone but..."

Mrs Mayer looked at her son like he had revealed he had always been a ditto.

"I suppose we can keep that man until 6:00," she conceded.

"Early shift?"

"Yes. He might even be home early. The wave of second year experience period trainers is starting to lessen. Now my Nav, please."

Brendan cautiously gave it back to her.

"Ok, well I'm going to go see if he's-" he started.

"Who's pro bono nurse here?" Mrs Mayer cut him off.

"You," Brendan said.

"That's right. He isn't allowed any visitors at this time."

How was Brendan going to blow eight hours?... He had the best idea, train Vibrava.

"So why don't you tell me who you met along the way?" his mom encouraged, getting ingredients out for making deep-fried cheese bites. One of Brendan's favorites.

"Just some kids from trainer's school, battled them," Brendan said, digging through his bag to check that he had everything. Swell had perked up and he recalled his bird.

"How about May? Did you two help each other out?"

"I though Prof. Birch would've told you," Brendan said.

"I'm asking you, not him," Mrs Mayer sighed, measuring out honflour.

"Well, she's kind of annoying. She always thinks she's right."

"Is she?"

"I dunno. I'm gonna go and train. Be back for lunch!" Brendan dashed outside in the running shoes his mom had bought him more than a month ago. Not too far away, the Kyogre's storm was slowly taking possession of the land, while the major food distributors were panicking because of Sootopolis' collapse. The Groudon's drought was starting to affect the sensitive composition of the yannan leaves in Mossdeep. Boat travel to and from Pacifidlog was banned, but in the grasp of the pouring rain, it looked like some sort of evacuation was in order - meaning 50% of Hoenn's fishing industry would shut down as well.

GT Hoenn was delivering this news along with convincing footage to viewers all over Hoenn- and they didn't know it, but people in the Mainland were looking on too.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm gonna slap up the next 9 chapters pretty fast in order to make myself finish this thing. I actually planned it all out last night. Took me like 30 min. sigh. Now I have to do it.**


	37. Pillar to the Sky

Shelley honestly didn't know what she was doing as Maxie took her aboard a compact yacht and sailed east towards the clash of sun and storm, calling it a bit of 'pleasant afternoon storm viewing'.

"You see, Shelley, the League has asked me to keep an eye on the feuding legendaries," he said with a bow, turning back to the joystick-like control of the sleek boat.

"So if we die, it will be for a good cause?" Shelley was struggling to tie her hair back in the wind.

"We won't die, darling, we're only going to stop by and see if the fight is even," Maxie said triumphantly. His charcoal-grey and bloody-coral coat snapped behind him. There was an excited glint in his eyes, because he was oh so excited when things went his way and he could do what he liked.

Shelley saw under the darkening skies his eyes appeared black. Suddenly it struck her, oddly coincidental as lightning flicked across the not-so-distant sky.

"Is this your idea of a date?!" she exclaimed. "It is, isn't it?"

"A date? Don't be so childish," Maxie said with a full, incessant grin. Roars and crackles and bursts of energy flashed and sounded from up ahead. A sudden gust of wind hit them with a wall of rain and it didn't stop. "Aren't you having fun?"

"No!" Shelley said, outraged.

"There's a raincoat in the bench there," Maxie directed her. "You should enjoy this! There's aqua under us, and there's aqua above us, and falling down on us! By the way, did Archie get the blue stone from the Seafloor Cavern?"

"None of your business," Shelley flung at him as she pulled the yellow raincoat on and tried unsuccessfully to make the hood stay up. "Turn around!"

"No-o!" Maxie chortled. Sootopolis loomed on the horizon as he thrust the boat on and heavy rain pelted everything in sight. The sky was boiling, but here and there strident daggers of sun pierced the clouds, more and more as they went on, so that Maxie made a point of going through as many as he could, yanking the yacht side to side. Luckily, Shelley didn't get seasick, being used to Aqua's custom of water travel. She demoted herself to clinging to the back rail for dear life as they got right near to the looming Groudon and the monolithic disturbance beneath the ocean that was Kyogre. It seemed like the Groudon was winning, for as they came to about a mile off and neither could hear a thing thanks to the ancients' roaring, Maxie pulled the yacht around as he cut the engine, under clear skies and merciless sun. The choppy waves threw them up and down as the Kyogre began to summon a twister of water, torrents of energy swirling around it. The Groudon grumbled in a deep bass voice something like "come at me bro", and just as the rising tornado of seawater made a 90° turn for it, the ground/fire type glowed with heat-wave-like energy and blasted forward a huge wall of heat and blue-hot flames. The attacks met midair and such was the Groudon's intensified strength under the sun that a mushroom cloud of steam condensed. All of the hydro pump attack was vaporized. The Groudon stepped back, half-in and half-out of half-destroyed Sootopolis, sending 5-foot waves rippling out as it roared. Both Maxie and Shelley shielded their eyes, but then hung onto the boat as it was flung around. Regaining his balance, Maxie revved the engine and whipped back around as the Kyogre dove under the water for respite. Back into the patchwork of sun and storm the two went, although it seemed now there was more sun.

"Wasn't that excellent?" Maxie questioned Shelley rhetorically.

Even after seeing the Groudon overpower the water legendary, Shelley realized she really, really wanted that Kyogre for her own.

"That was an a-maz-ing hydro pump," she breathed, staring back, blazing heat and cold rain alternately bathing her.

"Hm, didn't you see the power of the overheat the Groudon used?" Maxie called back. "I'd rather that one."

A few minutes later, as the legendaries grew smaller on the horizon, Shelley appeared at the Magma leader's side.

"How about that? You get the Groudon, I get the Kyogre?"

Maxie laughed sharply at her. "So Archie's not the one in charge?"

Shelley crossed her arms. "He wouldn't give me the Kyogre anyways."

"Listen to you, like you're shoe shopping," Maxie said. "Perhaps it could be worked out. But only a member of Magma could be trusted with such power."

"You said you weren't going to bribe me to join you when this whole thing, like, started."

"I don't bribe. I make promises and I postulate. That, my dear, was the latter. I'd rather have both for myself," he said, spreading his arms. There were going west and nearing the hideout, which was on a small island with bike paths running overhead and the south coast of Mauville not too far north. Maxie slowed the boat. "And you assume that I would somehow be able to distribute the ancients as I please."

Shelley gave him eyebrows that said, "why not?".

"Ah, good girl," he said, pulling the boat into the small cove and tying it to the dock post. He gave the Aqua admin his hand and they both stepped onto dry ground. Here it rained lightly, the dark clouds seeming still very far above them. They stood in the shelter of the steel-supported rocky mound, the part of Magma's base that was above ground. Shelley had taken off the raincoat. "How are those cuts?" Maxie asked.

"What... Oh." Shelley admitted to herself that they had patched up quickly and painlessly. But before she could decide if she wanted to verbalize that or hate on Maxie for it, he had lifted her loose T shirt just enough to see, discreetly as one could.

"I can't even tell," he said as Shelley stood for a moment before slapping his hand away. That grin was back. "What? There's no one around."

Shelley made a noise of disbelief as he pulled her closer. They were both mostly soaked but he still radiated warmth, the smell of rain and soot and the sea mixing in her nose. This time when he kissed her, she kissed him back.

They somehow got back inside, Shelley's head spinning. The Magma leader escorted her to her room and thanked her for coming along with him, like they were just acquaintances going out for tea.

...

Phoebe was giggling with glee as she dragged Sidney out of the League. May stood up nervously. She had trained her numel just inside Victory Road while she'd waited. Now she didn't want to cross one of the Elite Four, but Steven had said that Sidney wasn't to go...

"Like, Phoebe," the mohawk man said uncertainly, but she leaped around in skinny khakis and a loose floral shirt tied at the waist, a flower in her bob of super-curly hair.

"Come on Sid, the door mods and all can handle it," she trilled.

"Steven said..." May put in uncertainly. It was still weird thinking of him as the Champion.

"Yeah, we really have to get all these people to safety," Sidney said in a pleading tone to Phoebe.

"Everyone else can do it," Phoebe cajoled. Sidney managed to extricate himself from her efforts and rushed back inside with the help of May's support.

"So... You should lead," May said. Phoebe, pouting, led May down the several long sets of stairs cut zigzagging into the cliff the League was built on. She released two wailmer and the girls mounted one apiece. Wailmer were generally the best pokemon for one-man surfing, the perfect size and quite docile.

The storm had improved since dawn - if the sun that quickly heated up May's back so she felt like a griddle ready for scrambled eggs was an improvement. Phoebe seemed to regain her spirits quickly, tossing comments over her shoulder to May as they surfed along. May started to worry she'd get a sunburn on the back if her neck. When they curved south and reached the shrinking domain of the Kyogre's storm, she was glad for the rain that came down and the dimness of the day under the dark clouds. However as they surfed on the gale intensified and there was sheet lightning and thunder accompanying the roars of the legendaries, and May really started to hate the whole thing.

She stubbornly focused on holding on and following Phoebe. The wailmer, sturdy little creatures, kept plowing through the waves. As May was about to shout and ask the Elite Four member for a respite, she saw a huddle of houses or rocks or something ahead, obscured by the downpour as they were. A tall, imposing shape loomed through the sheets of rain as well, but they came upon the houses faster than May thought they would.

"Pacifidlog," Phoebe said to May as they drew even. The houses were built on wooden platforms that were chained to underwater anchors, but in the torrents pouring from the sky, some were languishing a quarter of the way underwater. There were people in the water everywhere, on the worst possible surfing pokemon you could find, corsola (the pokemon notorious for flocking together whenever more than one was present, as their tendency was to create reefs). A huge confused sprawl of people flubbered about in the water, trying to stay on their corsola and falling off, corsola trying to knit themselves together and wild corsola coming to join the party, and trainers thinking a wild corsola was theirs and being unpleasantly surprised by a stab from one of the corsola's rocky branches. It was bedlam.

"Around them!" Phoebe declared, veering to the right. For once, in the midst of the deluge, May had no desire to help at all.

...

"Here it is!" Phoebe declared as the two reached a jut of rock sticking out of the water, a metal door blocking the entrance. The girls hopped onto the landing and Phoebe recalled the wailmer. While May looked up at the tower that was built on the jut of rock, and obviously designed by human hands, Phoebe dragged the Champion's card through the card slot beside the door. "Whoo!" she squealed as it opened like a garage door. May took a max repel out of her bag and sprayed them both, as Phoebe only had her pokemon and the written clue with her. "Oh thanks! Oh-kay, I know the first part!" Phoebe skipped in and led May through a couple wide, sandy caves. It didn't take long to get to the top of the jut of rock, back into the rain. May glanced back and down at flooding Pacifidlog as Phoebe oohed and ahhed at the ruin of a tower; it was made of sandy limestone bricks with a composite casing cast over it, worn away in places. A pattern of darker bricks zigzagged across it, looking like it meant something.

"There's no lock on this one," May noted incredulously as they stepped inside.

"It's so dangerous and the wild pokemon are so strong that people avoid it. Plus it could come crashing down on our heads anytime!" Thankfully, Phoebe had brought a powerful flashlight on a chain around her neck and used it to illuminate the darkness. "I personally think it's all overrated."

"Uhh..." May trailed nervously, getting the chills for no reason. The floor was laid in dark purple tile, cracked and chipped. The ceiling was about ten feet above and supported by crumbling pillars lining the walls. The girls clambered over the fallen, grooved supports as they made their way clockwise in the square passage.

"See, that was easy," Phoebe chirped as they got to the first set of stairs.

May thought that maybe Sidney should've come...

Level two and a completely caved-in section of the ceiling blocked their way right, so they went left and dashed across some suspicious-looking floor, almost wiping out on stacks of tiles fallen from the floor above. They were both panting when they got to the next set of stairs. "One minute, catch my breath," Phoebe said. "Whoo!"

May wished her traveling companion wouldn't be so loud. Taking another max repel from her bag, she sprayed them again. "I guess you were right about the wild pokemon. This stuff works to..." She turned over the grooved cylinder. "Level 50+."

Phoebe laughed nervously and coughed as dust came from somewhere. "Up the stairs!"

The girls charged off again, only to stopped at the next floor by glowing red eyes and Phoebe shrieked and dropped the flashlight.

Waiting for them in the dark were a predatorial group of seven dusclops.


	38. One Does not Contradict the Champion

Dinner was the fried puffs Brendan loved and steamed loclibroc with cheese. His dad had just come home from work a half-hour early and slid into place at the small table at 5:37. Although these quarters weren't much compared to their comfortable 2,000 sq. foot in Johto, they did fine for a family of three.

Norman noticed the third place at the table as the loclibroc was set and Mrs Mayer sat as well. He had no time to guess before his son rushed in the doors, kicking off his sneakers and nearly throwing himself into his chair at the sight of the steaming puffs.

"Brendan...!" Norman exclaimed.

"Hi Dad," Brendan said.

"Stand up," Norman said. Brendan did and his father gave him a tight, long hug. "What are you doing home, son? I've been seeing some news reports, but... Prof. Birch said he'd heard from May you were off looking for a stolen pokemon." Norman was tall and forty years of age, close cropped black hair around a square jaw, one of the few gym leaders who didn't have to wear fancy-shmancy clothes and dye his hair. He was the leader of the normal type gym.

At least May hadn't blabbed about anything else. "It's kind of about both of those things. But also I have to talk to you about something," Brendan said seriously.

"Sit down and dish up first," Mrs Mayer said. Her family did so.

"Looks good, honey," Norman said.

"Thank you."

Brendan stuffed a few heavenly puffs down. It had been forever since his mom's puffs... She couldn't make cookies, but she could sure make these...

"Don't shovel. And take some more loclibroc," his mom said. Brendan obliged.

"So, Brendan," Norman encouraged.

"Now what I'm going to tell you, please please don't tell anyone else. Please." He waited for both his parents to nod a little uncertainly. "Ok." He gulped down the last of the puff he was working on. "So you know team Aqua?"

"The news reports say they're the ones who cause everything at Sootopolis - there are pokemon there or something," Mrs Mayer said.

"All I heard was a big storm," Norman said.

"The pokemon are causing the storm," his wife informed him.

"There are two pokemon," Brendan said. "One's the Kyogre and it's a water pokemon, really big. The other was sleeping in lava in the Cave of Origin, which is right by Sootopolis - it's called Groudon and it's gigantic, must be 60, 70 feet high."

"That is gigantic!" Norman exclaimed.

"Yeah, so Aqua woke the Kyogre up, but the news people don't know and you can't tell anyone yet that there's another group, Magma, and they woke the Groudon up."

"How do you know all this?"

"I was there-"

"And," Mrs Mayer put in, "he went back, too, against the Champion's orders-"

"You met Steven Stone?" Norman interjected.

"Oh yeah," Brendan said, not adding that May was practically best friends forever with him. "But I did go back, Steven did say it was dangerous, but I had to go and get my vibrava I left there, and check on May's pelipper, and I wanted to see if any Magmas were there."

"So... Magma awoke the Groudon and stayed around?"

"No, I rescued a guy who was trapped. He's... What I need to talk to you about because he's kind of in my room right now, Mom says he has broken ribs."

"In your room? You brought him all the way here through that storm? How?"

"Flying," Brendan said. "Now I need to keep him somewhere where he can't escape like here or at the gym. Because way before this, in Fallarbor, Aqua was messing around, and Magma met up with them and had a big confrontation."

"I hope you didn't get yourself involved," Mrs Mayer said rather hopelessly, going to the stove to fry up some more puffs as Brendan stuffed another in his mouth. Norman hadn't touched his plate.

"So what did you hear, son?"

"Ok, this part you can't really tell anyone, and don't tell Professor Birch. So Magma freed the people Aqua kidnapped, but they also captured one of the Aquas, trying to use her to get the leader of Aqua to tell them where the Kyogre was. Aqua actually didn't know. Them Magma sent Aqua running and I tried to get the girl Aqua back, but something weird happened. ... I kind of blacked out as I was about to tackle one of the Magmas who grabbed Swell's pokeball. So they took me to their hideout."

"Are you making this up, Brendan?" Mrs Mayer said.

"No!" Brendan nearly yelled.

"Let him finish," Norman said.

"So at the hideout, Maxie called me to his room, and then I bolted after he was done asking me questions."

"What questions?"

"Nothing important. The thing is, I saw some of their plans on a map and I knew they were going to head for the Cave of Origin. I escaped but Xense got left there... They outnumbered me and I didn't have time to recall it or anything."

"Do you think it's still in their hideout?"

Brendan shrugged, pushing Xense out of his mind. "Thing is this: I really need to question the Magma upstairs, because in the Cave of Origin, it didn't seem like Maxie wanted to wake the Groudon: it seemed like he wanted the stone in the wall. I told Steven that but Steven wants to deal with the ancient pokemon instead of capture Aqua or Magma. I think he's missing something big, I think Magma knows more than him. And besides, if you let this guy go, he'll go running back to Maxie and tell Maxie all about me and I'll have to move to the Mainland or something. I'm sure I'm a liability by now because I know all this stuff. So what do you think Dad?"

Norman took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. The therapy must be going well. He was eating pretty normally, his right arm wasn't so stiff. "I see what you're saying. I suppose we'll have to keep this man under lock and key. Meanwhile, this Magma group must be stopped. Both of them! But..."

"... Steven isn't going to do anything until the legendaries are taken care of," Brendan finished.

"You can't go contradicting the Champion," Mrs Mayer said in a no-nonsense tone.

"Maybe we should take this to the ranger's office in Petalburg. Why not spread the word? If they're dangerous, then..." Norman said.

"You can't go disobeying the Champion's orders," Mrs Mayer repeated, setting the second batch of puffs on the table. Brendan grabbed three to restock his plate. "Besides, does Brendan have any evidence of what this Magma plans to do with this stone?" she pointed out to her husband.

Norman looked at Brendan, who shook his head.

"I can ask at the ranger's office if they've heard anything, but your mother is right, I'm sure the League will have things under control in no time," the Mayer patriarch stated.

Brendan sighed pointedly and leaned back in his chair, the delicious, chewy, savoury puffs his only consolation. He had guessed his parents would say as much. But he needed Xense back. He needed to go and bust their base in, wherever it was. While May was off hand-holding with the League he would kick ass. He should.

"So, any more badges?" Norman asked as he finished off his loclibroc. Brendan told him the negative truth. "How about May?" his dad asked next.

"She's got almost all of them," Brendan said half-derisively. Why did his parents have to mention her in conjunction with him? "But I'm still stronger than her, if I had Xense. She wouldn't have made it out of the Cave alive if I didn't fly her out."

His parents reacted little to that statement and started talking about Norman's day at work and the energy bill.

Brendan got up from the table, stacked his dishes in the dishwasher and headed upstairs.

"The man from Magma is still not allowed any visitors," his mom called after him.

"I'm not gonna talk to him, I just need something from my room," Brendan yelled back. Truth was he had been hoping to get away without a warning but he was obliged to obey and sullenly marched around the slumbering Tabitha. His room had a window on the south wall and a desk with a computer and a mat with a fire symbol on it. He never spent much time in it. He kicked a treecko doll around a few times, then headed back downstairs.

"I'm gonna go train," he called to his parents, jamming his feet in his shoes.

"Be back before 9," Mrs Mayer said.

"I will." Brendan dashed outside. A light rain was falling along with the beginnings of night. His mom and dad were really the only people he'd bend to when he had a mind to do something else, but his trainer's instincts were challenging that ingrained set. The rest of the world was totally oblivious to Magma's threat. The more Brendan wanted Xense back the more he convinced himself that Magma was a legitimate threat. And he wanted Xense back because he knew he could do it and stop himself from feeling like a shitty trainer. If that priggish May would stop using him as a crutch when only he was around and then kissing up to Steven Stone when he wasn't around - maybe they could do something to prevent imminent trouble. But no.

Swampert surfed Brendan over to a route with higher-levelled pokemon and the huge mud fish pokemon battled jointly with the vibrava at first. Soon though the dragonfly-like pokemon didn't need the help.

Brendan threw everything out of his mind except the grinding at hand. When he was finished with the grass patch, they'd need to shower it with a rain of max revives to restore ecological balance.

...

The map of Hoenn, Sinnoh and the Mainland coast hanging on the wall of Maxie's lounge was nicely detailed but it was a pain sometimes to find major points. Courtney had written down Brendan Mayer's address and was trying to find the hamlet of Littleroot on the map. Maxie appeared relaxed on one of the red love seats, but his fingers tapped rhythmically and quickly in impatience. Dr. Syder and his assistant were still at work, and Maxie had sent the third to help them.

The leather-skirted admin pointed to a blue dot on the bottom half of the map. "Here, sir," she said. "Littleroot. It doesn't even have a Pokemon center or Pokemart. Tiny."

"Hm." Maxie traced the distance from their base in New Mauville to the little dot. "In all likelihood, he's not at home; a child on his experience period." Maxie said the last two words with disdain. "School is much more useful than traipsing around a region."

"Do you want me to go and check it out?"

"We need information on all his pokemon," Maxie began, working out different ways things could happen in his mind, eliminating all inferior possibilities.

"Don't we need to get him before he can start spreading word around? The girl, like I told you, is under Steven Stone's positive stance towards us, but Brendan has seen things she hasn't."

"No, we don't need to be labeled as child predators," Maxie said derisively. But he said it to Courtney's statement, not her. She was never afraid to put her ideas out there because she never felt that Maxie attacked her directly, only sorted through her propositions logically. It was almost like he was deriding himself for considering the notion. "Physical force is the last resort. Power in this age must be obtained indirectly when possible. You know what I'm about to run through again."

"Context," Courtney nodded.

"Yes." Maxie sat up straighter. A smile flicked across his features for a moment, like it did when he had planned something that would go his way. "It can't hurt to try the house and listen for awhile. But I did offer you rest, Courtney, so-"

"No, I'm ready to go, I'll get there by dark," she said. She very well knew that Magma could be legitimately called a crime syndicate, but she had a full pride in her when Maxie told her all the points of his plans and she talked them over with him. Unlike any of the bosses she'd ever worked under at the Regional Administration building in Mauville, he understood when something had been asked of her and gave her the option to recoup. He put his employees first. It seemed to work in reverse to the tactics of a taskmaster - Courtney had never stayed overtime when she had off days at her old job. But now, she was ready and willing to go the extra mile.

...


	39. Falling Through and Going Up

The GT Hoenn reporter duo was entirely beat. Having got some good footage, they headed for the League, figuring that if all of Sootopolis was allowed past Victory Road, a couple of respected media personnel wouldn't be a problem.

"Maybe . . . get some pans of the people flying away from Evergrande," Gabby panted, holding a tarp over her head like a tent, preferring the suffocating still heat to the direct fire of the sun's rays.

"Already got a couple," Ty responded, lying on a bench, foot on the wheel to keep the boat straight. He had packed up his camera equipment and had dumped the five gallons of ice from the cooler onto himself and just lay there as it melted. The battling noises of the pokemon behind them had lulled a bit. "They'll all probably book it later... When everyone realizes they can't stay at the League indefinitely.."

Gabby had no strength to resist him and submissively cooked in the drought-like weather.

...

At the League, this very issue was being discussed between Steven and Sidney. The two were taking a break from redirecting calls and serving food and forming groups of people for outside excursions, though once they figured outside was an oven, the Sootopolians mostly milled around inside and muttered amongst themselves, waiting for their names to be called by the League members in charge.

"I just got a fax from Mossdeep's panel chief," Steven said to Sidney as he offered him a small glass of alcohol at the Champion's personal bar. Sidney downed it with relish. "They have space for maximum 250, maybe 300 if some of Mossdeep's residents relocate as well. Apparently the sun is hitting them hard as well. Flannery says Lavaridge is good for another 310 or so, hot spring hotels and such."

"But funds to send everyone there and keep them until whenever?"

"That's Wallace's field. He's going to Mauville as we speak."

"Taking the long way round, I hope!"

"Yes. I would have gone but the Commonhouse said it was to be a private forum for only Wallace and one of Sootopolis' other panel members, Juan."

"Anytime anyone has to go privately to the Mainland's snobby stakeout here, it's a bad thing."

"They're not all snobs, Sidney. And it's the government. Even if they were... don't call them that."

Sidney nodded and pushed his glass on the smooth tabletop so it slid halfway down.

"But our problem is that to relocate Sootopolis and open the League, we need to find non-existing residences for 800 people," Steven stated.

"Ouch," Sidney said after a pause. "That is totally a problem."

Steven sighed. "Even if we could somehow resolve everything with the legendaries now, Sootopolis would take a year or more to rebuild."

"You can't exactly rebuild a volcano."

"Maybe I could talk to Cyn..." Steven murmured, leaning forward on clasped hands.

"Cyn?"

"Cynthia, Sinnoh champion. No, no, I've asked enough of her already. What I'll do is draft a request for temporary housing, built close to Fortree for ease," Steven's mind raced. "Yes. That."

He got out his computer and hooked it up to his Nav. Computers were Nav accessories used for school, official documents and such.

"Really? Really? Who's gonna fund it?"

"The Mainland," Steven said.

...

May reacted first.

"Go Glalie!" She whipped the pokeball out of her bag and released the ice type. It had evolved just today while she was training inside Victory Road. "Ice beam!" A network of crystalline energy shot from the icy pokemon, stalling the dusksull and giving Phoebe time to grab the flashlight and release her banette.

"Banette, shadow ball!" she yelled at the humanoid pokemon. Together the two pushed back the duskull and sent the wild pokemon running, though not defeated.

Phoebe sent her beam of light around floor two. It appeared identical to floor one in terms of design, but the girls quickly figured out that where the ceiling had collapsed on the first story, the floor was caved in, or about to, here. They carefully treaded their way around floor and ceiling debris, avoiding any suspicious spots, tense as their pokemon hovered along. They saw the red eyes of duskull gleaming from where the flashlight couldn't reach, and even heard some ghostly, melodic song from floors above. It made May shiver. Later she would remember that the calls reminded her of Winona's altaria.

They murmured back and forth about where to step next in the not-quite-absolute silence.

"We should go right."

"Use the pillar for support."

"Yep."

"Carefully..."

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeaaaah!"

Phoebe suddenly dropped down as the floor gave way.

"Phoebe!" May shouted, unwisely approaching where she had fallen, slipping on a devious purple tile. "Aah!" Her yell was cut short by fright as she too plummeted - but a stiff shock up her bones jolted her to a hard landing. He legs went out from under her. Unsteadily, she stood back up; at least her already injured side and arm hadn't been pinned.

"Phoebe?" May picked up the dropped flashlight and found the Elite, coughing in a cloud of dust.

"Here," she said weakly. May shone the light back up. Glalie and Banette were looking down on them.

"Go to the stairs!" May shouted to them, but they didn't seem to understand.

"The stairs! Go and meet us there," Phoebe tried, her voice still high with fear. Her pokemon lead the way, out of sight.

"At least it understands you," May said, helping Phoebe up.

"My bond with Banette is really tight."

The girls continued in a more somber manner, retracing their former path to the stairs. Both hesitated, then May pulled Phoebe on.

No duskull were waiting for them that time around, only Glalie and Banette.

From then on, they were a lot more careful, especially Phoebe. May sprayed max repels and Phoebe directed the pokemon about as they navigated through the eerily similar next floors.

"I think we must be on the ninth floor," May said quietly as they panted up another flight of stairs. They had had another run in with some scarily high-levelled golbat that their pokemon had been able to frighten off.

"Dunno," Phoebe panted back. "Looks like we'll go really quick over this stuff."

The girls dashed over some weak-looking tile. Their hearts were pounding, had been for the last 45 minutes. After a dilemma at the next floor, which had three exits but one blocked off, they figured out they needed to purposefully fall through the ceiling of the next floor to get at the third exit.

That set of stairs opened into a small, ornate chamber. Something resembling an altar was affixed at the back of the room, tarnished lamp stands manning the sacred path. Phoebe dashed up to the altar thing and brushed it off, oohing and ahhing. "We found it! We did it! I wonder what it does!"

"Maybe we shouldn't..." May started as she joined the Elite, but Phoebe was already trying to take the box-like artifact off its foundation by one of the poles affixed to its top. "You know, they never talk about if there were people living in Hoenn before us," May realized as Phoebe strained.

"Steven has told us the Mainland cleared it out before planting our predecessors here. Prepared it nicely. Decontaminated."

Mary's expression twisted. She had never considered that before and it completely disgusted her. "Really?"

"Besides Steven's source, Granma always told me the same thing. My grandma had skin like me too. She was a wild woman, lived in the forest alone. My mom moved into Mauville's low income sector after she had me and boom, she was taken and I went to live with Granma - Eek!" Phoebe popped one of the poles out of place. May had no time to inquire further or feel more disturbed because the back wall was in fact a door that now opened into a tight passage.

"Wow!" May exclaimed, having never seen stereotypical action movies in which this sort of thing happens. Fictional films were non-existent in the regions.

Phoebe ran ahead. It was a short, twisting passage. A glow of light came from ahead that caused both the girls to stop and recall their pokemon. Phoebe grabbed May's hand and they glanced at each other before rounding the corner into a grand, domed cave with a large natural skylight in the ceiling, through which rain pelted and pooled in a scalloped trench running around the perimeter of the cave.

But that fortunate architectural feature was not the cause of the girls' stopped hearts.


	40. Great, and Probably True

It was odd, and Brendan knew his parents felt as odd as he did, sleeping on the couch while a man involved in crime was imprisoned in his own room. Mom said she would take him to her work tomorrow, make sure he wouldn't be identified and nothing would be filed on him. Basically anyone you knew, if you worked at a region hospital, you didn't have to file anything personal on them. Hospitals were cheery and organized and usually joined to the contest hall, if the city had one, so patients could attend for free. A smart budgeting decision by the Mainland.

Brendan breathed in home, contented somewhat. He was planning to wake up really early and talk to Tabitha. But Littleroot was working like a drug on him: it was something special about the quiet of the rural town, the companionship of the stillness. The fireplace burnt down as Brendan drifted off to sleep.

...

The dream was twisted this time. It had that horrible sensation of being very, very far away from something where you squirm at all the little details you can't quite see. There were the aggron - there were always the aggron - and mudkip, but there was a Groudon and rocks crashing everywhere and something terrible happened to Mudkip and Xense, enough to nearly stir the dream up into consciousness. There was lava and the Groudon passed Brendan, leaving his dead pokemon and heading for someone, was it his dad? - Brendan turned around and screamed, _flamethrower_, and the lava burst into torrents and everything went black.

Only for a moment and then the remnants of REM sleep vanished, the blanket of cloudy nightmares lifted off Brendan. It was warm as he slowly opened his eyes.

The couch was on fire.

Still sleepy, Brendan grabbed his glasses and his bag and _the rug is on fire too, Arceus_. He had to go somewhere. The fireplace glass had shattered and the love seat was flaming. Smoke gathered upwards; Brendan was going to instinctively bolt but his parents were upstairs. He dashed up and banged on their doors as the smoke thickened downward.

"Mom! Dad!" he screamed. He opened the door and rushed in and shook them awake. Mrs Mayer opened her eyes and sniffed the air. "Fire! The house is on fire!" He shook his dad as hard as he could. Norman mumbled in his sleep.

"What... Smoke, fire," Mrs Mayer was saying as she stood. Brendan was still running off the idea that there was imminent danger from the Groudon, the feeling of horror and panic solid in his throat. He grabbed his mom's hand and nearly dragged her down the stairs, through the piling smoke as the fire searched for more fuel beyond the living room furniture, out the doors, and then he ran back in and fought up through the smoke. Norman was standing right outside the bedroom, realizing something was wrong, and Brendan pushed him towards the stairs as he ran into his own room. He tried to balance not breaking more of Tabitha's ribs with getting him off the bed, but it was too slow going as smoke poured in through the open door.

Norman appeared in the doorway, stooped just under the smoke, hellish fire backlighting him. "Brendan! Get outside!"

Brendan flinched but kept heaving at Tabitha, dragging the man onto the floor.

"Get!" Norman yelled, then collapsed into a coughing fit as his eyes streamed.

"Arceus!" Brendan swore as he dropped Tabitha and dug in his bag, which was dangling from an arm and impeding movement, for Swampert's pokeball. He took a guess at the unorganized jumble, some kind of instinct pulling him to the right one. The huge Pokemon materialized in a stream of light, roaring as Norman ducked.

"SURF!" Brendan yelled at the top of his lungs, then dropped down to the floor, coughing as his pokemon released a tidal wave of energy that swept over the upstairs balcony as water and met the fire below with a clamour of steam.

"Again!" Brendan choked, crawling to his pokemon's side while Norman ran to open the window. Smoke escaped into the night as Swampert effectively doused the downstairs fire with another full-power surf.

Somehow the father, son and pokemon got outside, Brendan reassuring his dad Mrs Mayer was fine. She was standing in the cold, raining dark, thunder sounding, a couple neighbours around.

She collapsed into her husband's arms, crying.

"It's ok," Brendan heard his dad mutter hoarsely, "Brendan's alright, we're fine."

It was then that Brendan's logical brain kicked in and he realized he was not in his dream and he tried to pinpoint where the dream had started. Fuzzy now, the dream was, a jumble of horrible ghosts of feelings... The lava and the Groudon. That had been real. Had felt like it. He'd been trying to save his dad, whoever the legendary was after.

Swampert made a comforting rumble as it adjusted its lumbering stance on the ground beside him in the darkness, tail fins slapping. Brendan sat down and leaned against its cold skin. He ran his hand down its side and felt the small grooves, the reassuring temperature. But there was a turning in his gut. The lava twisted into flames in his mind's eye, burst, shattered fireplace glass. Heartbeats bolted through him. He knew how to do it. He could do it again.

He had caused the fire.

...

The forecast for the dock city of Slateport was hard rain. Although they only had a light rain with echoing thunder in the distance now, people were rushing around in the market outside, packing up their stalls and folding down their tents. Home to almost 20,000, Slateport had declined to take any Sootopolis refugees because they were always full.

Slateport's panel was meeting now in the city hall, talking with a representative from Mauville. It was pretty boring business, but the pensive crowd gathered outside, gossiping, thought not.

The crowd gradually turned as a group of people in similar clothing swaggered up to them, led by a short but fairly jacked guy in a black silk shirt, bandana around his head.

Crossing his arms, Archie waited till he had the crowd's full attention. His twenty-three grunts stood behind him and Matt lurked at his side. He much preferred Shelley; he'd get her back eventually.

Archie held up a fistful of wetsuits and diving masks, oxygen tanks stacked by the grunts.

"Yo," he called out to the people, "Thanks to Slateport Diving Adventures for these."

The owner of the business confusedly stood out a little from the crowd, and Archie told some grunts to follow him to his establishment with everything. They grumbled a little, tired of carrying the oxygen tanks all the time.

After they had all streamlined into a nice procession, Archie faced the people.

"We are Aqua," Archie stated, using his loud voice. "And we'd like to know why you're hanging on every word spoken by the Mainland rep in there."

The people murmured to themselves.

"Maybe you don't know yourselfs," Archie proposed, adding flair to his grammar errors. He had written this speech himself and got it memorized; yeah, there was a little pressure to say it all right. "The Mainland has given us this wonderful, wide land," Archie said, spreading his arms. "Provided us with great healthcare, way of life, taken care of us. Right?" Archie grinned. The people gave him suspicious or confused looks. A few nodded. "Everything is perfectly organized to them. But not for us! They've kept us in their little boxes, making us think we have freedom!" He gauged the crowd's reaction. "Why do I say this? Because it's clear now! Are they going to let you go to your families to take refuge in this gathering storm? Or will they let you buckle down where you are to protect your relatives, your sons and daughters?"

"We don't know," someone said, scoffing. A new reporter at Hoenn TV had run out and was taping the whole thing excitedly.

"I promise you something. When that Mainland rep walks out, and your panel with 'im -" he pointed to the door - "-_they're not gonna give you a_ _choice_. That's right. But if this city holds together, it's all good, right? No! They're gonna stuff people from everywhere else in here, just how they like. The Mainland thinks we're their pokemon, their tool! Why is the Kyogre awake? Why is this disaster upon us? So the Mainland will see! They will see we, Hoenn,_ refuse to be their pawn_!"

The crowd was neither for nor against. Ripples of discussion went through the assembled residents.

"In the meantime, I suggest you monitor every move the Mainland makes to keep you herded. They are already tearing apart Sootopolis' families! Some of you know it." Archie's guess was right; Slateport did house relatives of Sootopolians. He saw nodding heads.

Archie led his remaining few grunts off with Matt, just as the panel with the rep exited the city hall. The crowd immediately swarmed around the officials, asking questions.

"No one is to be moved," the panel leader announced, motioning for quiet as Aqua paused to hear this, "you will all stay here, but be prepared to evacuate."

"What?! Why don't we go now? It'll be too late later!"

"Phew, so my market stall can stay up."

"I have a son in Lilycove! I'm going!"

"No one is allowed to leave, travel is too chancy," the panel leader clarified. "And the market will have restricted hours."

"I'm so glad we get to stay!"

"Yeah, I don't have money to go anywhere."

"Also," the panel leader continued, "We will be receiving a number of people from Pacifidlog who are being helped here by a few kind citizens, as we speak."

This time the reaction was fairly unanimous.

"We're maxed out!"

"There's no space for more!"

"The Commonhouse has legislated that each type 2 house containing less than three members must house a group from Pacifidlog," the panel leader said as the other panel members hustled the rep out through the stirring crowd.

More dissent followed and Aqua hurried off north. Archie snickered to himself with glee as he led his troupe through the streets and the air that smelled of salt and rain. It had gone well.

"Excellent speech," Matt congratulated his leader slimily.

"Heheh," Archie said. "Magma thinks they're so smart, awakening the Groudon to fight our Kyogre! But they're idiots! Water beats fire!"

"And any sort of destruction will draw the Mainland's attention," Matt hissed in accord. "Where are we headed now?"

"We'll stop for a drink in Mauville, but we're gonna go to Lavaridge! They're taking a whack of evacuees. And they're a tourist destination, power-generating kind of town, Mt Chimney and all. We can spin that against the Mainland! I got it already, the Mainland isn't gonna do anything to make sure they retain their profit as all their tourists are kicked out! Heheh!"

"That's great, boss, and probably true," Matt agreed, slicking along beside his leader.

There was no one on the lower road to Mauville. The upper road was a traffic-heavy bike path. Aqua gandered about, full of hot air as they kicked their way through the grass. Night was starting to draw close and the thunder seemed more ominous as the garrulous group rounded a turn and ran smack dab into Magma grunts.


	41. To Poke a Legendary

"Holy ..." Phoebe trailed off.

Inside the skylight cavern was coiled an enormous pokemon, rivalling the legendaries in terms of size, though it seemed much bigger in this enclosed space.

The snake-like pokemon had rubbery-looking skin laced with scales. Four ridges ran down its length. At intervals along its body, sets of four red-edged pointed plates jutted out. Its skin was patterned with barely noticeable darker splotches of green and slits of gleaming gold streamlined its body, opening into hexagonal patterns at various intervals. Plates of smoother, tougher, brilliant emerald shielded its neck and the bases from which its plates arose, along with its pointed tail.

The wyrm's head was streamlined and dragonlike, with a tapered jaw and four long spines sloping back, two like horns and two out of its lower jaw. Sealing off its wyvern characteristics, it had wicked claws and jointed red-edged plates angling off its arms, no hind legs. May's armspan would only reach 2/3 around the circumference of the imposing, wyrm creature.

Its eyes were closed but it gave off a quiet, powerful radiation of life.

"Let's poke it!" Phoebe exclaimed in a hushed tone.

"No!" May reacted in horror, nearly mouthing the word in caution. She clutched Phoebe's shoulders and dragged her back into the decrepit passageway they had entered through. "Text Steven!"

Phoebe made a pouty face and got out her Nav, texting. May stared at the magnificent dragon creature. How many legendaries were there hiding in ancient ruins around Hoenn? Surely none to top this. Phoebe snapped a pic, hit send and stuffed the Nav back in her pocket. "These shoes are killing my feet. Ok, let's go poke it!" Phoebe rushed back into the cave and had poked the dragon pokemon before May could even start going into cardiac arrest.

Nothing happened. Its skin was probably so thick it couldn't feel anything. May sighed in relief. "What did you tell Steven?!" she hissed at the Elite.

"We found the 'ruler of the skies' and we're gonna poke it! Apparently that's not working though, but Granma taught me self defense skills, had to know them living in the woods!"

Phoebe wound up and delivered an arching kick to the pokemon's side. May cringed the greatest cringe of her life and couldn't help the short scream that escaped her.

Whether it was due to the kick or the scream, the wyvern's eye, which was half as big as May, slit open, gold surrounded by a ring of black.

May grabbed Phoebe again and neither hesitated to run for their lives as the wyvern lifted its lithe, muscled body, cinching its coils and shaking the whole cavern, making for the skyward exit.

...

It was a meeting room like all meeting rooms, stifling and boring with an inactive TV on one wall hooked to a computer, no windows.

Wallace was wearing a plain white shirt and blue pants. Juan, the other respected panel leader who had at one time been Wallace's mentor, sat beside him, and they were surrounded by Commonhouse members. The pawns of the Mainland.

It had taken a long time to fly here, circumventing the feuding legendaries, and Wallace didn't feel that great. He never flew. They hadn't escaped the harsh heat, either, even miles away from the Groudon. The political heat in this room was almost as unbearable.

After finishing introductions and attendance, the spokesman of the Commonhouse addressed Wallace.

"Ld. Wallace, what is your plan for financially managing the effects of Sootopolis' evacuation?" the suited man spoke, frown lines and smile lines present on his face.

"We have 18 million in reserve," Wallace said. "It can be used to cover emergency costs."

"The limit on Mainland funding for ranger assistance on a single incident has already been reached," the spokesman informed him. "And surpassed." He pressed a key on his computer, bringing up a document on the TV showing various fees that which were Mainland-covered and which were not. "However, that is not the only problem. Half of that 18 million you have already designated.."

"To go to Mossdeep and Lavaridge," Wallace finished.

"Indeed. There are problems with this seemingly simple solution. Not everyone is licensed to fly, and not everyone has sufficient insurance, as insurance premiums have been jacked earlier this morning. Food distribution. Sootopolis accounts for 23% of Hoenn's agriculture, and not only is that eradicated, but the Sootopolians themselves must be fed. The list goes on. But ..." The spokesman leaned forward. "9 million covers two weeks." He showed the next chart and spent some time going over this estimate. Wallace sat stoically, nodding. "The question is ... how long are the Sootopolians going to be away from their city?"

Juan shifted in his seat, murmuring, "Indefinitely."

Wallace's features had drawn themselves into a frown. "We are waiting for a report from the Champion. He is looking into a way to solve the issue of the legendary pokemon..." The words fell from Wallace's lips as the TV image flicked to a zoomed-in shot of the Kyogre and Groudon, Sootopolis' eastern wall completely destroyed behind them.

"You do realize the time - not to mention money - it will take to rebuild Sootopolis," the spokesman said, the rest of the Commonhouse members a solid wall of agreement.

Juan looked at his panel leader. Something drained from around the gym leader's eyes.

"I do," Wallace said in little more than a whisper.

"Your only logical option," the spokesman continued, "is to disband Sootopolis." He spread papers out on the table. "Champion Stone has already supplied a formal request for construction of apartments. By disbanding Sootopolis, it would provide the push the Mainland needs to accept and fund this project. We've already picked a prime location and need your signature in order to submit the consent to Fortree and Lilycove, which likely will demand some share in the new settlement. It will likely become a subsidiary of those two. Because your citizens are skilled in agriculture, the location will be a great place for them to expand the farming land and establish a stable economy."

Juan nodded.

"It is the best step," encouraged another Commonhouse member. The spokesperson flipped to a map of Hoenn and explained where the potential site was.

"A subsidiary. A commodity," Wallace said so quietly Juan barely heard. Juan listened to the proposition as it seemed Wallace was spacing out. It was a good plan and more reliable, much more reliable than guessing at when Sootopolis would be ready for restoration and how much it would cost.

"Would the 18 million cover until the basic dwellings are up?" Juan asked.

"We'll talk to Fortree and Lilycove, of course. If they're going to get something out of this, I'm sure they'll be willing to put in a deposit," the spokesman said.

"Wallace?" Juan turned to the man he'd helped to become Sootopolis' gym leader.

Wallace blinked and tucked a loose kink of hair behind his ear. He'd gone respectfully hatless, his long hair tied back.

"I... I see this is the most reliable option at our disposal," he said.

Everyone else in the room nodded.

"It would put all your citizens, and everyone involved in restoring their well-being, at risk; to continue indefinitely on insufficient resources," the spokesman stated, the hammer coming down.

The two members of Sootopolis' panel walked out having signed papers. Papers that would scatter their city and draw them together again under the hand of their saviours; papers that would leave the eighth gym badge in limbo; papers that would wipe Sootopolis and its meaning and distinct way of life off the map.

...

One of the Magma grunts was having the time of his life pretending to boss the others around, but once they ran into Aqua, he quickly shrunk to the back of the group.

"Yo, get out of our way," Archie sneered at the opposition, seeing no one of importance was with them. He released his mightyena and so did Matt. As a couple grunts sent out their mightyena, Courtney pushed her way to the front of the Magmas. She had listened to her instincts that told her the grunts wouldn't do a bang-up job. And she was right. They had intercepted Aqua on the way back, no intel on what they had done in Slateport, and if Magma should've been there to counter it.

"What were you doing in Slateport," Courtney said, facing the two lead Aquas. She released her golbat.

"We're so scared, little girl," laughed Archie. "We did nothin' but tell the truth. Ain't that right?"

The grunts yelled in support.

"I don't see what you're doing hanging around. You woke up the Groudon. You got your wish. Happy now?"

Courtney stalled for a moment. Think like Maxie. How would he get the information out of them...

"You're idiots if you think we were only after the Groudon," Courtney said, putting on a tight, small sneer. The Magmas formed a more supportive wall behind her.

"Really? Idiots?" Archie leered. "What were you after?"

"What you were," Courtney returned.

Archie appeared confused for a moment. "We're after reform, nothing less!"

"Yesss," Matt slithered at Archie's elbow.

"Yeah? Oh, I know better. You're going for the riches. In that cave." Courtney scrutinized his gaze as it narrowed in epiphany.

"Ha! The big stone! Probably worth hardly anything! If you too got one from the Groudon's cave , don't expect much more, heheh!" Archie guffawed. Matt choked on eely giggles.

Mission accomplished, Courtney thought. "I would battle you," she said, "but let's save that for your next pitstop on the way to having Aqua immortalized as the stupid-ass gang that just ran off at the mouth about reform."

"Ho! She thinks she's smart!" Archie lunged and grabbed Courtney by her cropped shirt. The Magma admin's golbat reacted by clawing at the Aqua leader, who shoved her backward. "The people are already realizing what a dictator the Mainland is when it comes to crisis! And that truth is all thanks to us. The message is going out and you can't stop it. Come on."

Aqua stampeded past the Magmas, north. Everyone looked to Courtney as she dusted herself off.

"You, you, you..." Courtney designated 13 of the grunts. "Go find some plain clothes and have a day off." She effectively rid herself of some useless bumblers. Why did Maxie ever suggest they were competent? ... Courtney would later suspect he had said it to make her think that, knowing she'd pull through. "The rest of you, after Aqua! Go! Fast! Don't get noticed, but make sure you get verbatim everything they say and do!"

The rest of the Magmas scrambled off with a little grumbling.

Courtney, satisfied, recalled her golbat, wearing a navy coat to hide her uniform and to shield her from the steady rain. It was too late to continue on to Littleroot. She decided to return to the base to sleep.

...

The Mayers had lodged in Professor Birch's house for the rest of the night once the fire was confirmed out and Swampert was declared a hero. Brendan was relieved his parents got May's room, and he got a sleeping bag, although it would have been fun to look through her stuff.

When he woke up the next morning, he took his meds right away and then ran over to his house. The roof was burnt but not reduced to ashes. Dashing up the now rickety stairs to his bedroom, he was relieved to see Tabitha still lying there. He dragged the man so he was back fully on the bed. No doubt neighbours would be stopping by later; Brendan loaded the man up onto Swampert and, quiet as he could, led his pokemon out of the house into the surrounding fields and the shade of the trees. His Nav said 5:32 a.m. Tabitha stirred in his sleep. Swampert settled down, giving Brendan the ridiculous "love me" look. It had been very convincing on a mudkip, but Swampert's wide face was made for roaring, not cajoling. Brendan didn't have any more pokeblocks anyway.

He sat down under a tree. He looked over at the Magma. Conflicted, he told himself he only needed to ask where the base was. It was a tiny little question. But of course then he would take off for Xense and Mom and Dad would not like that at all. He'd probably have to live as a refugee after that if he didn't want to be grounded till he was 50.

A couple wurmple crawled up a tree some meters away. Brendan had an idea suddenly. He needed to test if the fire had been his fault. Even it he had started it, it had been an accident, he consoled himself excitedly as he dug a little pit in the dirt and set up some sticks and lit them on fire with a match.

"Ok... Flamethrower!"

Nothing exciting happened. The flames licked up the sticks. Brendan tried putting his hands in weird positions and pretending a Groudon was behind him, to no avail. Swampert gruffed in amusement as Brendan piled more sticks on and relit the fire.

As if to make a point, Swampert nailed a hapless zigzagoon taking refuge in the grass with an ice beam. It fainted.

"Swampert... That's like 34 exp," Brendan ridiculed his pokemon. Then he realized he would probably have to attack something for an attack to work. He focused on the wurmple. Before the word "flamethrower" could come out of mouth, he felt a shot of energy bolt from him and shoot into flames and then knock the wurmple out as it transducted back into energy.

The little fire Brendan made hadn't done a thing and he realized that the fireplace must have exploded because of his fire, not because of his manipulating the cinders inside.

Sitting back, Brendan thought about what had just happened. It was a momentous occasion that required this kind of reflection. As the zigzagoon felled by Swampert got back up and tottered away, having absorbed enough energy from the energy of Swampert's attack and the wilderness around it, Brendan chalked it all up to the sludge bomb incident. It was logical that if he was affected by pokemon attacks, he would be able to attack like a pokemon.

"Am I a fire type?" he said out loud to himself. "Damn! This is sweet!" he said abruptly, jumping up and then flopping back down. He had to reveal this to someone besides Swampert, who was eyeing him judiciously.

"What are you doing up early, honey?"

Mrs Mayer was suddenly there at his side. Brendan gulped.


	42. Cabin Fever

Wallace and Juan had time to fly around the storm as the Groudon's drought was failing and the Kyogre was assaulting its foe's stronghold with powerful water attacks. The storm boiled and thunder filled the air. As they swooped around Sootopolis the pouring rain soaked them. Wallace dismounted after Juan, falling over after such a long time on the bird and unused to flight in the first place. Juan recalled the birds and headed inside the League once Wallace had managed to stand.

Inside, cabin fever was heating up. Around 400 people had been moved to Lavaridge, a few to Mossdeep, or relocated elsewhere, which left 1,400 people grumbling when they were going to be let out. The right side of the foyer was filled with those still awake, drinking coffee and arguing about when they should be let go to their family, or if they didn't want to or had none, complaining about how terrible the situation was.

One of the medical personnel brought the panel members towels to dry off. Both headed back to Steven's room, where the Champion and Sidney were laughing, telling jokes and stories over drink.

"The first housing plan, they only had a kitchen and a bedroom! The Mainland never sends singles over at first, and that was all over for type 1 houses!"

"That's retarded!"

The two League members stopped their guffawing as Juan and Wallace entered.

"How did it go?" Steven asked, less boisterously, straightening his cravat. His suit jacket was hanging on a chair and he only had the white dress shirt and black slacks on. "Stormy out there."

Wallace nodded, wringing out his hair in the towel.

"We made some good decisions," Juan said.

"Yes. I heard you were the one who came up with them," Wallace said.

"What?" Steven said.

"The apartments?"

"Oh, the temporary housing. At the moment it was the only thing I could think of. Did you find a better plan?"

Wallace just frowned tiredly.

"Juan, down the hall to your left is Drake's room. Go ahead and use his shower," Steven said. As Juan left, Steven also bid Sidney a good night.

"Yeah, thanks for the drink, man!" Sidney called as he marched out, a bit tipsy.

"I hate flying, Steven," Wallace said.

"You should do it more often," admonished the Champion. "Go sleep. Take my bed. The cot out here is fine for me."

"I can't..." Wallace resisted weakly.

"Yes, you can."

"Thanks."

Steven gave his friend a little push towards the bedroom. He had the worst feeling about what had been decided. He had guessed at the inevitable, but he didn't want to tire Wallace more by extracting the details tonight. He had plenty to do, worrying about Phoebe and the texts she had sent him. Steven realized he was actually trusting May to keep Phoebe's ... rather ... free spirit in check.

...

When Phoebe and May got outside again, having had just as much trouble getting out as coming in, darkness was falling and the storm was picking up.

"Just great! We have no clue where the big snake is!" Phoebe exclaimed, looking up into the sky as she released the two wailmer into the water.

"I can't believe you did that," May said for the 74th time. "I really can't. Of course we don't know where it is! It could be anywhere! It could come back as soon as we look away!" May's estimation of the Elite had fallen greatly. "But we have to go back and in this -" thunder interrupted her - "-storm!"

The two set off. The corsola panic by Pacifidlog - which would be known as the Corsola Panic later in history, and would have caused 34 fatalities - was cleared up in the east, but it looked like west of the floundering habitations the same tangle of a situation had arisen.

Again the two girls left them to whatever help had come, in this case several well-meaning people from Slateport.

The surf back to the League was long and torturous. The ocean was choppy and huge waves came seemingly out of nowhere from sudden attacks of the legendaries. The girls trusted the poor wailmer to keep their sense of direction as thunder and Kyogre's moaning filled the air. Rain swept down and everything was so cold and wet, May and Phoebe may as well have been underwater.

When they finally got back to where they had started from and somehow made it up the zigzag stairs to the League, they just flopped down on Phoebe's low, wide sofa, soaked and exhausted. It was 2:30 a.m.

...

"I ... just took Tabitha out here so no one sees him," Brendan said.

Mrs Mayer gave him the "yeah, right" look.

"Really! I didn't ask him anything! He's asleep!" Brendan said. His mom nodded and sat beside him.

"Strange to say, I'm so glad you were home when the fire started," she said. "And that you woke up. I only have Ninetales; who knows how we would've doused the fire without Swampert." She gave the water pokemon a scratch under its wide chin.

"Yeah... so, how do you think the fire started?"

"The fireplace, probably. Left something in there, something reactive."

"Mom..." Brendan trailed. "I don't think the fire would have started if I hadn't been home." There it goes. I guess I'm telling Mom.

"What do you mean?" his mom laughed gently.

"I mean, uh.. I think I started it, I was having this dream where I did start a fire -"

"Oh no sweetie, don't get into that," Mrs Mayer said assuringly, putting her arms around him. Brendan squirmed out of the embrace.

"No really-" he protested.

"Brendan-"

"Seriously Mom-"

"Brendan look at me." Mrs Mayer put her hands on his shoulders. "I know your dreams are really vivid. But it was an accident, the fire."

"My accident," Brendan insisted. _Dammit, I take the blame willingly for once and I get a wall?_

"No, I mean it happened by chance, no one caused it, and not you. Did you take your meds?"

Brendan jerked away from his mom's caring touch.

"Yeah."

"Good. I'm going to go see if your father is up. I'll still go to work at 9, so make sure Tabitha stays safe and secure till then. I love you."

"You too."

Brendan didn't look at her as she left.

...

Courtney had woken up in time to hoof it down to Littleroot and find house #21 half-burned down, a man she recognized as Ld. Norman and a couple others standing around. Didn't look like anyone had suffered, not the kid. He was probably out elsewhere. The group was talking about house repairs so Courtney decided not to stay. Meandering back to see what kinds of pokemon lived in the grass around here, she happened to stumble upon Brendan's copout and overhear the last bit of the conversation, keeping refuge behind a stand of trees. And she saw Tabitha. A wash of relief and astonishment confounded her for a moment. He was alive. Maxie was in the clear. She had to get him - no, she didn't, she was starting to see how useful she could be as the sole admin.

But at the same time, the kid had gone through the trouble to get him out. He was either kindhearted, or planning to get all of Magma's plans out of Tabitha.

But he was just one kid, and Tabitha didn't know as much as Courtney did.

Courtney didn't want to call the shots on it. At least she knew he would be at the Petalburg hospital.

Feeling accomplished, she hurried back to New Mauville.

...

"We've finished, Maxie."

Dr. Syder's words were true music to the Magma leader's ears.

"So?" Maxie said, standing in the makeshift lab, his three employees in front of him. The nuzleaf was back in its pokeball, which sat in a special dip on a desk.

The assistant brought up a chart on a TV attached to a computer. Some kind of chemical structure, though markedly different from what image would come to the mind of an American. Pokemon ran on not ATP but energy, called pokénergy by scientists who were brave enough to start studying and lose themselves in it. Although half the economy was made up of pokemon products, most of them were made without any real understanding of why they worked. Most of them just re-packaged what nature already provided pokemon with. Of course, some things like TMs and HMs were exceptions.

"This is what seems to be the cause," said Dr Syder. "It's not DNA - good news - but apparently something that functions almost like a hormone. Except we can't trace it back to any major organ." He flipped the image to a grainy microscopic image. "We think these are self-sustaining microsystems within the pokemon's bloodflow."

"Exactly my theory," Maxie said. "What is their lifespan?"

Dr Syder clasped his hands. "As we went on studying them, frankly they were so fascinating that we didn't notice until later that their concentration in the blood was diminishing. It's roughly 22% of what it was. We've taken small samples, but the ones in the sample are decaying at the same rate as the ones actually in the nuzleaf."

"Is it infectious?"

"It may be. We tried several methods of injecting a small amount into a zubat-"

"A zubat?" Maxie interrupted. "A zubat?"

"There's not too much selection around here, I'm afraid. It did work, but the small bloom in population of the microorganisms quickly dwindled. I believe there is probably a natural process pokemon go through to activate the virus."

"Did you inject it into a human?"

"No." Dr Syder frowned. "While it would certainly establish the virus, the microorganisms would die off without the correct natural activation process. This is quite an interesting discovery alone, though." The other doctors gave their assent.

"Yes. Interesting. You have hard proof now that this ... this pokérus is caused by the concentration of these microorganisms in the bloodstream?"

"Indeed." Dr Syder presented a sheaf of papers to Maxie. The Magma leader threw them in the chemical disposal bin, grabbed a small vial of a mineral-oil encased pyrophoric substance, and effectively reduced the papers to ashes in a flare of heat and flame.

"I'm sorry," Maxie said with a flat expression. "You know it, and that's enough."

"But, when published it would be famous-" the other scientist spoke.

"I am paying you to do what I tell you. Now, with the dwindling time you have left, see if you can activate the pokérus. Use this lotad." Maxie tossed the assistant a pokeball.

"We'll get on it, Maxie. You should join us," Dr Syder said before the other scientist could ask any questions.

"I would enjoy that. But I have to pay a visit to a professor north of here, weather permitting or not. Work overtime if you have to."

The Magma leader left them, not very satisfied, despite having his theory confirmed. It was useless knowledge unless it could be applied. As he made his way toward the rec room to see if the grunts further pursuing Aqua were back yet, he met Shelley, who was 1) wearing different clothes and 2) coming from the direction of the exit. She strutted up to Maxie in skinny ruffled yellow pants and a light white jacket over her black T-shirt and handed him his door-opening remote.

Surprised for a moment, Maxie managed,

"I was wondering where that was."

"Mm-hmm," Shelley said, obviously pleased with herself. "The storm's let up a bit. Seems like my Kyogre is winning during the night, and your Groudon during the day."

"Seems like it," Maxie said. "Did the grunts bother you at all? I'm expecting them back soon."

"No, didn't see them."

"Did you blow all of your half-paycheque on this?" Maxie said, gesturing to her ensemble.

"Actually, no. It was a nice half-paycheque. Larger than I'd expected."

"The cost of keeping Archie's mouth shut." Although Maxie was reconsidering that now that Brendan seemed to have established himself as a permanent stumbling block to Magma. It all depended where that kid was at now. And with the League requesting help from them (Maxie had sent the Champion a report on Aqua's minor Slateport appearance), Maxie doubted even Archie could cause mistrust of Magma if he talked about what happened at Meteor Falls. There was another problem with that, though - their current plans could end up passively sabotaging Magma's.

"So I'm just duct tape to you?" Shelley said.

"Hm? In a way," Maxie said. "I have more duct tape than just you." As they made their way down grey hallways, Maxie flicked out his carbon steel knife, tossed it handily, and resheathed it. "Courtney would be if I asked her."

"She says you've got something planned for me," Shelley commented half-coyly.

"I have plans for everyone." Maxie raised his eyebrows matter-of-factly. "If you join Magma, I'll tell you yours."

Shelley gave him a smile and headed for the rec room.

Maxie watched her go.

"And if you don't join Magma, then I will be quite sorry..." he muttered to himself._ Don't get so_ _attached_.


	43. Maxie's Stone

**AN: Yoi guys better be happy fo da ships in da last chapter.**

**I got really excited. Now there's a whole bunch of Wallace/Steven tension.**

* * *

"You poked it," Steven said, after Phoebe had told him the whole story of their adventure in the Sky Pillar (as Phoebe had christened it). He was emotionally and mentally exhausted. He needed to battle. He was paid to battle, not do all this. _"You poked it."_

Phoebe looked surprised at his reaction. May glanced at her and glanced back at the Champion, wondering what had been up with Wallace - something to do with the furious crowd in the foyer, the fury that had spread to the other gym battle rooms as well.

"You. _Poked_. It," Steven said. He stood up. "Just what I need," he muttered.

"Steven?" Phoebe said, her tone half sorry, half concerned. "We think it'll return soon to its cave! Was Wallace OK?"

"Sootopolis has been disbanded. It is now Lilytree, a city of agriculture to be built at the corner of 120 and 121. It has no gym." Steven seemed older to May, and a lot more tired and even ... a little impatient.

"Oh," Phoebe said.

"That's ... Good, isn't it? The Sootopolians will have somewhere to go-but not right away-" May frowned.

"The Mainland builds things very quickly when they want to. They built a earthquake-proof 30-story in 360 hours once," Steven said. "You poked it," he murmured again.

"Merp," Phoebe said.

"We'll have to go back now - no, wait, how was Pacifidlog?"

"We can't go back! It was a nightmare surfing through the storm!" Phoebe almost panicked.

"It looked like Pacifidlog was having trouble evacuating, but it was," May said. Phoebe picked up the story and told about the corsola.

"So we have no one there to look for us," Steven concluded. "That's that. I'm going. Magma has reported that it's pretty much a constant stalemate about the legendaries. They're monitoring Aqua, which has started traipsing about, proclaiming rubbish about the Mainland. Everyone's occupied for now. Stay here, help Sidney get everyone organized and once the OK comes through, send everyone off." Steven took off his suit jacket and grabbed a waterproof navy blue windbreaker from a hook on the wall. He marched off, Phoebe and May watching him go.

"He seems kind of short with everyone today," May said.

Phoebe agreed and they headed out to see what Sidney needed.

...

Gabby and Ty were now up in Verdanturf, the holistic town ten miles out of Mauville, where the HAC, Hoenn Agricultural Commission, was holding meetings to strategize ways to prevent the imminent food shortage and economic collapse. Sootopolis was producing nothing, Pacifidlog was inoperative, Lilycove was reporting dead fish clogging the waters from the intense heat, and Mossdeep's yannan trees were suffering greatly. Not only did yannan trees account for making of most clothing, the bark was used for medicine and their roots were usable herbs. Additionally, more and more people fled Mossdeep every day for Hoenn's main land.

GT Hoenn got the scoop, filmed against one of the stacked tiers of hondew plants beside the HAC building: the plan was to try and move as many people as possible to Dewford, which also had a hand in yannan and fishing, being an island on the west side of Hoenn.

"Like that'll work," Ty said to Gabby after they finished the interview, sitting on benches in the town square, beat by the heat. "Who wants to move to Dewford? Nothing there. And transportation costs. Stuff's already expensive without having to ship it up 105."

"Exactly. Let's do my intro. I'll put that in." Dewford was also the base for a lot of manufacturing facilities. Pokemon products were mostly manufactured in Fallarbor and Rustoboro, but as for human food, a lot was made and packaged on Dewford. It was known for being polluted.

The camera rolling, Gabby leaned forward on the bench. "Hello Hoenn! We bring you an update on the food crisis the extreme storm and extreme sun is bringing on Hoenn. The HAC president, here in Verdanturf, which is just baking at 37 celsius, has just -"

"Whoa!" Ty exclaimed, whipping the camera up to the sky. "Get an eyeful of that!"

Blazing through the sky in a jet-trailing bolt of energy was a lithe green snake-like creature. It passed quickly out of view. Ty turned the camera back to Gabby, who was staring up as well. Regaining her composure, the news woman refocused on the lens.

"And what was that?! It looked to be some kind of pokemon, coming from the south and heading north! However," Phoebe said, getting out her pokemon species handbook, "there is no pokemon resembling a green snake native to Hoenn. What could it have been? Send your thoughts into 55-GTHoenn!

"Back to the HAC president on the food crisis..."

After Ty finished compiling the story on his computer, GT Hoenn aired it right away. If there was one good thing about this crisis, GT Hoenn was becoming the popular source for instant information.

...

Brendan sat in the woods and stewed. The rain had let up, but it was still cloudy. Eventually his mom came back and Brendan sent Swampert and Tabitha off with her to Petalburg's hospital.

He stewed some more, casually shooting flamethrowers at wurmples that dared to get close. It took a kind of focus but not really any immense strength or effort. Yeah, he could've shown Mom, but she didn't deserve it if she wouldn't believe him about his dream in the first place. If she had he might've even told her about the sludge bomb thing. He put together his status clip. It still had a blur of pixels for every field of information. Retarded thing.

Brendan headed back to Professor Birch's house, where he and Norman were talking in the Prof's lab. It was more of a lab for observation, nature and such strewn about and standing catalogued in cabinets and pinned on the walls. Norman turned to face his son, checking his watch. Gym shift didn't start till 10 today.

"Excuse me," he said to Birch, who nodded and went whistling back to cataloging what he'd got done of his taillow project.

Father and son went into the kitchen, where a bowl of granola was set out for Brendan. He sat and began spooning it down, looking at his dad as Norman gazed out the window towards their house.

Norman sat down at the table after a minute.

"Brendan, your mother says you think you started the fire."

Brendan finished chewing his bite. It seemed like it took ten minutes. "I . . . yes."

Norman scratched his head. "It's alright if you did. I just need to know how it happened. Do you think it was one of your pokemon?"

Brendan sat up a little straighter. Maybe his dad would believe him. Maybe he should start with the sludge bomb thing. He did, telling Norman exactly how he'd been captured and that a full restore had seemed to heal it. In fact earlier Brendan had taken a super potion - Arceus, that sounded weird - because he figured he'd taken damage from pokemon attacks, like in the cave with the zubats, not knowing it would affect him. He didn't physically feel better, but he didn't feel the energyless weakness.

"You took it? Like a pokemon?" Norman mimed squeezing a potion pump.

"Yeah, I did. And I was fine."

"That's very strange." Norman frowned._ He believes me_. "Maybe Prof Birch would know something about it. But the fire, Brendan."

"Yeah . . . so I was having a dream, and it was pretty vivid, where I kind of used flamethrower or something . . . when I was trying to wake you up and get you outside, I thought I was still in the dream . . . I mean, Dad, we don't put explosives in the fireplace. How could the fire have started otherwise?"

"I don't know." Norman shook his head. "That's a strange story. You could have just been dreaming and . . ." Norman shook his head again. "Can you do it on purpose?"

Brendan gulped again. "Uhhh . . . . where's Ninetales?"

Norman took a pokeball out of his pocket. "Unharmed, Mom went back and found him." He released the sleek white-furred fox-like pokemon. It made a happy growly kind of sound and nuzzled Norman's hand.

"Uhhh . . . " Brendan trailed, feeling awkward as he attacked the family pet. To do it he kind of stretched his hand out, having a vague feeling it would help accuracy. He felt a bit of energy depart from him. He didn't feel the return of energy he'd picked up on while casually KO'ing wurmples in the forest though, as Ninetales had hardly been harmed.

The fox pokemon curled its bushy tails around itself, confused, looking for an enemy as Norman stared. The flaming energy had burst from his son. A human. A stream of transenergy fire, a human using a pokemon attack.

"Okay," Norman said. "I see."

"Um," Brendan said after a moment, "I have May's Gallade with me so I'm going to leave it here for her to take whenever she comes back . . . I was also wondering if I could take Ninetales because I lost Xense and I need another pokemon."

"Well," Norman said, "Alright." He recalled the fire type and handed the greatball to Brendan.

"Thanks. So you have therapy today later, right?"

"Yes, your mother will pick me up after my gym shift. What will you do?"

"I'll train Vibrava more." Brendan shrugged. "Watch the news, maybe go see if Trent's home."

"He's not, Derric and Shanie switched him into Fallarbor's mining program. Well, I have to go... have a good day, son. We can discuss everything after."

Brendan nodded as his dad gave him a hug and left. Leaning into Prof Birch's lab, Brendan said,

"Prof Birch, I'm heading over to route 110 to train."

"Ok, Brendan!" May's dad called, buried in leaflets of notes.

Mrs Mayer was off at 6 pm. Brendan would show up after that, talk to Tabitha, beeline for the base, and hopefully be back before dark.

...

Professor Cozmo's undercover employer returned at pretty much the same hour he had arrived days earlier. This time, the scatterbrained man was ready and waiting. Evening was falling and Cozmo welcomed Maxie in, presenting him with weak coffee in a white mug, which the Magma leader declined, instead going over to the potent red stone, sitting on a small endtable.

He put his hands around it. It was cool to the touch but the bloody glow still burned within.

"So?" he said, turning his neck to face Cozmo, who was standing slightly behind him.

"It is a very interesting - peculiar kind of, erm, stone. It appears to be a composite of partly ruby and perhaps a different, perhaps hm, extraneous composition at the core to provide such illumination..." Cozmo trailed as Maxie gave him a glare. "B-but composition aside, it seems to me like it is something like, erm, the minerals which are used to make revives and other pokemon healthcare, although the capacity is something like an ev-evolutionary stone, and it contains none of those minerals, as far as I can see with-without chipping off a sample-"

"That's right, no chipping," Maxie said almost lovingly to the stone. "What is its connection to the Groudon?"

"The fluctuations I measured indicate some kind of equilibruim exchange of energy, but of course th-that's, erm, assuming the Groudon is the only thing connected to it. Errhem, the patterns show input is followed by output, s-so the full potential energy might be released if either the Groudon attacked it or, erm, someone broke it."

"What if the Groudon fainted?"

"The data shows, here-" Cozmo gathered up a wedding-train like paper riddled with spikes and heartbeat-like lines, but Maxie pushed it away, "-well, it shows that the stone has sufficient energy to revive it several times and it also probably h-has once, yesterday at 1:32 a.m. ... Hm-hm," Cozmo cleared his throat.

"Fascinating." It would be interesting to study both this stone and the Kyogre's stone simultaneously. It would report to some degree which one was winning. "And if the Groudon was killed?"

"Killed? Killed? Errhem, nothing, I-I don't think.. Also the stone hasn't lost much of its energy, there was a large reflux of energy return from somewhere about 3:10 p.m. t-two days ago."

"Possibly energy gained from the Kyogre?"

Cozmo half-nodded, half-shook his head so it was impossible to tell what he meant.

"All this is fascinating," Maxie continued. He produced a wad of bills from his pocket. Cozmo pushed his glasses back up on his nose quite excitedly. "But is there a possible way for something besides the Groudon to absorb the energy inside?"

"A-as in the use of evolutionary stones, perhaps if it was attacked, while the Groudon w-was, erm, fainted. Or, erm, dead."

"Cracking it?"

"Th-the energy would disperse, I am fairly sure- of course I am basing this off other data a-as well-"

"Thank you, Professor." Maxie handed him the money and placed the stone caringly in the black bag he'd brought. "Not a word."

"I-I haven't said a thing. Haven't done a thing. I won't," Cozmo said, leafing through the bills, dropping some in his fervor.

"Goodnight, Cozmo."

"Errhem, goodnight to you too, Maxie!"

The Magma leader left with his prize: his stone and his knowledge.

...


	44. Faint but Steady

Steven released Metagross and clambered on. He looked westward. The storm seemed to have increased in ferocity since he'd last been outside; even here at the League darks clouds hovered, spitting on him. He zipped up the loose turtleneck collar on his jacket and told Metagross to head off.

Levitating pokemon were not understood. Through training, though, Steven had taught Meta how to maintain a steady speed and stay level. Nonetheless, as the rain whipped at them and clouds boiled ever lower overhead, Steven clung tightly to Meta's silver steel crosshorns.

His Nav started buzzing and ringing at his belt a bare three minutes into the journey towards Pacifidlog. He ignored it, gritting his teeth as Metagross flew at a steady pace through the air, 10 feet above the waves. Soon the rain lashing his face turned into a veritable waterfall and he could hardly see, curtains of water sweeping down his hair and eyelashes and Metagross swerved to avoid huge surges as thunder and lightning closed in on them. Steven lost his sense of direction, cold down to his synapses as the roaring of the legendaries seemed to come from everywhere and he could no longer tell what was a stab of sun through the clouds and what was a flash of lightning. Suddenly Metagross wrenched to the side in a spiral and Steven almost flew off, whirled around for a frightening instant only hanging on by Meta's crosshorns. Legs smacking into the heaving ocean as cascades of rain prevented visual orientation, he hauled himself back up with all his strength. Swiping buckets of water away from his eyes, for a brief second he saw the water spout that had tugged Meta into its orbit. Lightning strobed across his vision and for an odd moment it seemed as if he were floating somewhere dark and cold, only his Nav beeping insistently at his side. The next moment half a water spout rising out of the ocean blasted through half of him and he almost swung off Meta again as the steel pokemon wobbled, a huge wave surging over the both of them just as Steven regained his grip.

"Turn back," the Champion blubbered through the rain and waves, he didn't know which was which as his bleached hair streamed down in his face. The storm clawed at them, crashing down on them from above and surging up from below.

...

It seemed like a decade before Steven's wits came back to him and the rain had let up to a steady rate, farther from the eye of the storm. He unclipped his Nav from his belt, shivering with cold as Meta tottered on, still levitating. Steven had a sense they were somewhere around where they had started as he swiped his dripping hair back. Sure enough, as he dialed whoever had called, the mountainous shape of Ever Grande showed bleakly through the mist.

The Commonhouse spokesman who was dealing with Lilytree answered, telling Steven that the building was approved and Fortree was ready to receive the Sootopolians, with the fees in the bank. Lilycove had been scratched at the last minute, as there was a ban on going outdoors because of the harsh sunlight and some apparent electrical failure. Too soon to tell how Lilycove would react to that decision. They wouldn't get the compensation they'd negotiated in exchange for housing Sootopolians.

Steven dialed the next waiting call.

...

Courtney was fine with watching the base. Only hours after returning smilingly with the stone from Prof Cozmo, Maxie had gone to check on things in the lab and had come back out in a much worse temper. Although the pokemon carrying the virus had been found, apparently it had cured itself or something.

"Are you going to do something about Tabitha?" Courtney half-jogged to keep up with Magma's leader as he stormed to the rec room.

"Tabitha? No. You say he's in Petalburg's hospital. He'll be fine. He can't bring any trouble on us from there," Maxie said tightly. Courtney nodded.

"Where are you planning to look for another pokemon with the virus," Courtney ventured.

"The same trainer of the pokemon with the virus. There's a small chance it was spread among the trainer's other team members. However, procuring the pokemon will have to be done last. It would be the most ... negative part of our plan."

Our plan, thought Courtney, standing up straighter as they continued through the grey halls. "Who is the trainer?"

Maxie glanced sideways at her. "The child who you captured and escaped later."

"He's sticking around home for now. There was a fire."

"That is excellent. I doubt he could hamper us now, but best to be safe."

"Why not go now?" Courtney said fervently. They were so close to the culmination of Maxie's goals. She was the only Magma who knew the full purpose of the syndicate.

"Because Archie is setting himself up as opposition to the Mainland," Maxie said. "He is an incompetent fool. He must be removed. People will listen to him and not Magma if he gets his foot in the door first," Maxie said heatedly. "It must be black and white. Magma will always have the same goal, but Aqua will cloud the issue."

They had reached the rec room. Maxie paused before the door. Racket from the grunts came from inside.

"Stay here this time, Courtney. Shelley's here as well."

Courtney had meant to ask Maxie about a rumour she had heard, but now was not the time, she decided as she was reminded of the thought.

"We will return shortly. Be ready to go by then," Maxie continued, then thundered into the rec room and corralled all the grunts out with commanding imperatives.

They all left and Courtney made herself useful. She called the Champion to give him an update on Magma's vigil with Aqua. She flipped through the news channels. Arts and entertainment were not popular and sometimes not legal either in Hoenn; no one knew what a reality show was and there were no professional recording artists or football or fashion magazines or anything of that sort, things that didn't involve pokemon. There was no appetite for such things. Pokemon was life in the regions.

There was a new report from Devon that Mt Chimney activity readings had spikes, indicating an eruption was possible. The intense sunlight also was now in preliminary testing showing that it contained harmful radiation. GT Hoenn displayed shots of people in sea level cities like Slateport, and the various evacuees in them, fleeing to higher ground in the deluge.

Safe and warm, Courtney mulled over how Brendan's pokemon were to be ... procured. Perhaps they could be borrowed and small amount taken from each ... it was tasteless to simply rob one of one's pokemon. In other regions such crime was common, and Courtney thought Magma had a level of professionalism as they didn't resort to that.

However, she couldn't think of any way to borrow pokemon from someone who didn't want to lend them out.

...

"You're totally soaked!" Sidney exclaimed as Steven entered the League in a drenched mess.

"The story's rather fierce, I didn't make it," Steven panted. "Anyone have a towel?"

"One sec!" Sidney hurried off.

The Champion looked around at the evacuees. Swiping his hair back again, he called to everyone,

"Prepare for departure as soon as possible! You will be moved to Fortree, not Lilycove."

Grumbling ensued.

"All I wanted was to join my wife in Lavaridge.."

"How many more times are they going to change the freaking plan..."

Phoebe dashed up to Steven and threw piles of towels on the Champion. He made it through the crowd as May and Sidney started to put the Sootpolians in order. The Champion left a stream of water down the hall to his back room.

Wallace was sitting on the low couch. Steven passed him and went to the washroom in his quarters for a 3-minute shower, blasting the radio on his Nav as he warned his frozen limbs. At least the League was still getting hot water. Reports said that among the sunlight radiation, tremors, water funnels, impending earthquakes and possible eruptions, dead fish and trees, water pipes had burst and some electric cables had frayed underwater. Mossdeep had no power and no running water, worsened by the fact that there were numerous cases of sunstroke on the island town, and Lilycove was undergoing electrical uncertainty.

_What is happening to Hoenn_, Steven thought. He'd never even imagined such disaster would come to the picturesque, peaceful region.

He was about to put his gym suit back on, but if he was going to help the Sootopolians get to Fortree, he was going to need something light and protective. He chose his old brown spelunking pants, a tight long-sleeved grey shirt that also had a high neck and a visor-like pair of reflective shades. He grabbed a bottle of sunscreen, snorting at the fact that in one day you could be sucked down by a water funnel and several miles north die of heatstroke. Even as he walked out of the washroom, ready to go, the notion that something insane would have to be done after everyone was relatively safe was gathering certainty in his mind. There was no time to sit back and speculate about the safest way to take out the Groudon and Kyogre.

Wallace was standing up and facing him as Steven exited. Steven stopped, sunglasses dangling from one hand. How much longer he could handle politics and the physical strain and the mess of emotions being thrown on him and being sapped out of him, he didn't know.

"Where are you going," Wallace said. "Somewhere hot?"

"We're taking all the evacuees to Fortree, ancients help us."

There was a faint, steady glint in Wallace's eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said just as faintly. "I shouldn't be ... a weight."

It made Steven unsteady on his feet, the memory of Wallace's lingering fingers -

He stepped forward and gave his friend a slap on the back.

"I'll need a good anchor," the Champion said. "But not yet. We'll be going by sea. All of Winona's birds have been used getting the maximum number that Lavaridge and other places can take out of here."

Wallace had a small smile. "My specialty," he said. "Do you have any extra sunglasses?"


	45. Out of the Picture

Archie and team Aqua were trekking through the half-natural desert to get to Lavaridge. It was pretty much deserted - _Deserted desert! Heheh_, Archie thought - but for the one ruin maniac still running around in squares. Aqua passed him by, keeping to the scored route, when all of a sudden several golbat flapped by low overhead, scratching at Aqua's members. They all ducked and remarked on what it had been but continued on eventually, the most unfortunate grunts on the outskirts of the group, shielding the others from the stinging sand.

However, leading the group and shielding his face, Archie ran smack into something and the whole group shuffled back.

"Yo, Maxie," Archie snarled nasally.

The Magma leader stood at the head of his team. Their pokemon quickly fanned out and surrounded Aqua: golbat, mightyena, camerupt and a couple claydol.

"Do we-" all the Aqua grunts started to question, hands on their pokeballs, but Archie held steady. The training Maxie had ordered the grunts to do on their free time was pretty clear; there were no first stages in sight.

"I hear you're spreading rebellion," Maxie said.

"What's your problem with that?" Archie spat. "You still got Shelley kidnapped."

"Maybe not for long," Maxie said. "But you'll have to give up your plans to oppose the Mainland. Completely, totally. Right now."

"Heheh-" Archie's eyebrows jacked in an expression of disbelief, "that ain't happening!"

"Yes it is," Maxie said. "Do I need to make an example out of Aqua's leader?"

"You won't be making an example outta me! Pokemon battle now!"

The ultimate 20 against 20 battle ensued. Golbat and mightyena were everywhere; air slashes, take downs, water pulses and fire spins burst and trainers ran through the chaos trying to find a pokemon that would listen to their orders. Gradually the panic lessened and the Magma's pokemon, missing several fainted members, resumed their ring around the Aquas.

"What are you gonna do now?" Archie said, blustering a bit.

Maxie raised his hand. "Hands up, all you Aqua grunts who want a better future. Team Magma is hiring."

Several hands went up and Magma grunts grabbed those applicants and led them behind Maxie.

The remainder of Aqua bunched in tighter, nervously jiggling for more space that the Magma pokemon weren't giving them.

"Who has the blue stone from the Kyogre's cave?" Maxie asked next.

"Why do you want that thing," Archie blustered. "No one's gonna buy it offa you when Hoenn's like this!"

Matt was holding it in an Aqua-patterned bandana.

"Is this your final decision, then?" Maxie asked, as seven of his more devoted grunts started spreading out around the Aquas. "You will not abandon your plans?"

"Not when yours seem just as bad!"

"Ha, ha," Maxie laughed, "My plans are the same but much improved upon!"

"The same?"

Maxie had his dagger up and was shoving the point under Archie's throat before the Aqua leader could say another word.

"We can't have little Archie clouding the issue," Maxie said. "Not at all. Too bad for Archie."

The Aqua leader kicked Maxie in the shins and ducked away from the knife. He squared off into a sparring pose.

"Come at me!" the Aqua leader bellowed. Maxie grinned and made a stab, but Archie's arm shot up and blocked the blow. Their reaches were locked until Maxie withdrew elegantly.

Archie made the next move, stepping forward into a front kick, hitting Maxie in the chest, then launched into a backwards kick, but Maxie had moved to his side and wrapped a strong arm around Archie's neck. Archie grabbed the arm and towed all his body weight on it, dragging them down, then jabbed backwards with his elbow. Maxie reflexively let his chokehold go and sucked himself back from the attack, whirling around the point of his dagger and quickly lunging in as Archie got back into his stance. Arm swinging upwards to deflect the dagger, Archie left his side exposed and Maxie landed a lightning fast crescent moon kick. Archie grunted and backfisted Maxie in the left shoulder as the Magma leader sidestepped. Stunned by the pain, Maxie barely dodged a cross straight punch and spun to the side, using the momentum to hook Archie in the other side. Losing his balance backward, the Aqua leader axe kicked, whacking into Maxie's chest powerfully and snapping Maxie's head back.

Snarling and lip split, Maxie feinted to the left and ducked under the following backfist, whipping around with a forceful palm into Archie's cheek. The Aqua leader knifed out into a side kick, but Maxie wasn't there. Archie swiveled just in time and chopped away another stab, launching a front kick that Maxie blocked and traded with a fist meant for Archie's side, but the Aqua leader pivoted. Maxie ducked under the reverse kick that followed, the snapping, loaded leg thrust impacting the air and swirling sand above his head. Lunging in with a false stab, Maxie triggered a protective block from Archie and swung to the side, delivering a quick hammer fist into the crook of Archie's neck. The Aqua leader spun around, slipped his head and avoided another jab and went for another axe kick to take recoiling Maxie out, but the Magma leader was too fast and dodged to the side. As Archie regained his balance an arm snaked around his neck and pulled him backwards, a knee into the small of his back. Archie grunted and took hold of Maxie's arm to bring them down again, but Maxie was prepared and held on.

"Is this how you thought you would die," Maxie panted, lip dripping blood, and bringing his other arm around, stabbed upwards into Archie's trachea and hooked the blade to the side, severed a jugular vein. Blood spurted onto Maxie's cheek but he held on for a second longer, letting Archie go just before the last life left him. The body slumped on the sand, blood spreading.

Maxie hadn't used his favorite carbon steel blade, instead a different one of same quality. He took an alcohol-soaked cloth out of his pocket and wiped the handle only. He strode over to stunned Matt, grabbed the bandana containing the stone, wiped the bloody weapon on the admin's hand, and put the dagger in his grip. The Magma leader stepped aside and two of the grunts sic'd a mightyena who had been fed too many energy roots on the admin. Maxie turned aside as the trained-to-kill wolf did its job.

He solemnly took in the faces of the remaining huddle of 13 Aquas. They looked fearfully at him as if he might spare them.

"You train your mightyena the same, don't you, I saw it in Fallarbor," Maxie remarked. The Magma grunts recalled their pokemon and took out revive tablets, giving them to the fallen Aqua mightyena, but the Aquas themselves stayed huddled in fear. The Aqua mightyena were fed energy roots to restore them to full health, but the Magmas restrained the energetic wolves and offered them another energy root.

None of the Aquas ran as their own pokemon turned madly on them.

Screams and shrieks followed as Maxie released his crobat and the other Magmas followed suit with their golbats. They flew low until they were out of the desert and then shot up high, far enough away from civilization to be unnoticed.

This latitude was about the equator of the storm, patchworked in storm clouds and shots of intense sunlight. Maxie wiped his bleeding lip. He had never killed a man before. So this was what it felt like. He'd expected as much from himself. Maxie had given Archie many chances to give up. But the idiot had been too set on his small plans. Truthfully, Maxie had given the matter much thought, as he did any step in his plan. This had been the only solution; Aqua was a confounding variable that had to be removed. Now Magma would be the only option for those who would realize in the coming days or weeks that there was a force outside of Hoenn that needed to be shown a lesson.

Flooding Hoenn, ha, Maxie thought at Aqua's old plans. No. The Mainland was so much bigger than small-minded Hoenn could hold. But Maxie knew what it would take. He had what it would take. He licked the blood dripping from his split lip as his crobat carried him through patches of lashing rain and sun that soon gave way to the darkness of thunderclouds and a steady rainfall. It was only 6:30 but the storm made it look like night. In the dark, flashes of lightning and distant Mauville the only source of light, Maxie unwrapped the glowing blue stone and let the Aqua-patterned bandana be whipped away into the bleak air.

...

The first load of about 220 evacuees was ready to go, sitting on wailmer and generally complaining and muttering as the harsh sun beat down. It seemed like the Groudon was winning now, as the League, which was geographically in the Kyogre's territory, was set upon by the drought.

Steven was in the lead on Meta, Wallace was at the rear on Milotic, and May and Phoebe took the sides on wailmer. The pod bobbed in the water. There hadn't been enough sunglasses to go around so most people were sweating under canopies of sweaters and jackets.

"Let's go!" Steven called back and somehow the four trainers got the wailmer moving in an arc that would circumvent the Groudon and Kyogre and bring them safely to Lilycove.

…..

Brendan's Nav finally said 5:55 p.m. He was sitting in the grass with Vibrava, eating a bag of unburnt Hon-Pretz he'd found in his house's cupboards, itching to go. The minute the digits flicked to his marked starting time he jumped up, recalled Vibrava and tried not to seem too conspicuous as he jogged/walked northwest towards Petalburg, through the forest. In his focus on the task at hand he hadn't taken stock of the fact that the storm was increasing and rain was sheeting down, lightning and thunder duetting not too far east.

It was only about 20 minutes to Petalburg and as Brendan arrived he slowed his pace. The streets were brick laid and most establishments were closing down; the light level was that of night anyways with the thunderclouds overhead. The glowing windows were friendly but Brendan didn't give his state of wetness a second thought and didn't turn down the familiar avenue to the Pokemart. He passed the Pokemon center and turned onto the street with the gym and the hospital. Since Petalburg didn't have a contest hall, the hospital was built with a connecting passage to the gym for entertainment. There were many trainers hired by the gym because of that; a decision Norman had made that also came out of his paycheque.

Brendan entered the brick facility, which was set with stripes of recessed windows. He waved to the receptionist, but she stopped him.

"Brendan, your mom already left for Mauville with Norman," she said.

"Yep, she just had one of my pokemon here," he said.

"Oh yes, with the unfortunate visitor who fell off the pier! I heard all about it. I hope he's doing alright! With this storm as it is he had better get back to Johto."

"I know right," Brendan tossed over his shoulder as he traversed the colorful orange tile floors up to the sector under his mom's care. He punched in the key to her office door and let himself in. There weren't too many nurses and doctors busying about; not too many patients to look after at this time. Keys in hand, Brendan made it down the hall without being seen, the warm pot lights and wall murals his only companions. He reached room 103, the one his mom would probably put Tabitha in as it was secured and hard to see the patient from the small pane of glass set in the wooden door.

Brendan entered and stood at Tabitha's side. The man looked to be sleeping, his breathing easier than it had been before. Rain slashed at the long window along the outside wall.

The Magma's eyes flickered open.

"What're you doing here," he said. "You gonna get me out?"

"You wouldn't want to be outside."

Tabitha tried to sit up and failed because of the bandages around his ribs.

"Why? What's happening with the Groudon? How about the Kyogre?"

"Tell me where your base is and I'll tell you what's going on."

Tabitha lay back down. "Sure, kid. Maxie'll cream you anyways."

"He didn't in the Cave."

Tabitha snorted. Brendan hadn't turned on the lights to avoid being noticed from the hallway.

"Our base is New Mauville," Tabitha said.

"Really?"

"Really, hah," Tabitha said.

Brendan was surprised but it was a plausible tale. Ld. Wattson had in fact given him a key for New Mauville, saying something about checking on the generators, but that was more than a month ago. He'd put it on his bucket list for after he became Champion.

"So the Kyogre is awake. It and the Groudon are fighting. The storm gets worse in the night, and the intense sun the Groudon makes is stronger in the daytime. There's tons of flooding and electricity is out, and they're saying the food industry is going to suffer because Sootopolis is deserted and fish and trees are dying." Brendan had watched the news at Prof Birch's. "They even have footage of people in Lilycove ransacking the department store, buying all the food. By the way, I did save your life in the Cave."

"I know, kid," Tabitha said. "What's Aqua up to?"

"They made a speech in Slateport . . . I don't know, that was earlier."

Tabitha closed his eyes to go back to sleep and Brendan headed back out, grabbing Swampert's pokeball on the way.


	46. Aid and Administration

Brendan started to notice how fierce the storm was getting as he sprinted east, coming to the inlet that would take him to New Mauville, the underground power supply of Mauville that was only accessible from an island. He had the key in his bag. The grass was slicked and slippery with rain and itinerant baubles of water hung to and slid down Brendan's glasses as he ran. It was about 15 mins of a hard run and he panted on the riverbank for a moment, lightning lighting up his surroundings. Here was the first place he'd battled May. He hadn't really battled her much after that, come to think of it. Not that he would have any chance of winning, underpowered as he was. At least now with Ninetales he had water, ground, fire, ground, and flying types.

He released Swampert and clambered on her back and they scrambled into the water, waves slapping against the shore. Brendan seemed to make Swampert understand with tugs on its wide-spaced head crests where they were planning to go and the powerful pokemon bellowed with the effort of fighting the current, striving through the rain.

...

Clambering up onto the spit of land that was the sheltered inlet of New Mauville, Brendan recalled his loyal pokemon and took a deep breath, flinging pools of water off his hat as he shook himself off.

The metal door into the hunk of rock was inconspicuous. Tip of the iceberg. Brendan fished in his bag and stuck the key in and it opened. Quieting his breathing, he stepped in and closed the door behind him. Click. He was in an empty, fluorescent-illuminated grey hallway. He thought he heard voices somewhere. He planned to go back to that room with the red love seats; he had somewhat of a map in his head.

Dodging around spaces where he thought he heard voices and cringing at the metallic swishing of the doors opening when he triggered them with the floor panels, Brendan eventually made it to an intersection he thought he recognized and started down a hall to his right, coming to a door with a lever beside it. Must be it. Brendan tugged the lever down which cracked the door open a smidgen. He looked in, heart hammering. The lights were on, but nothing moved either in the room or behind him. Feeling exposed, he wiggled the lever down a bit more and slipped inside the room. The map was on the wall and the red love seats sat there, clean and expensive-looking as ever, black tubing and wiring traversing the ceiling. But there were no pokeballs on the love seats.

"Dammit," Brendan said quietly.

"Excuse me?"

Brendan yelped and jumped, seeing there was someone by the refrigerator on the back wall, a woman with luscious long red curls. The woman Maxie had kidnapped.

"Whoa," Brendan said as she quickly moved for the door. "Wait-" He lunged for the door as she slipped out, but too late- she cranked the lever down and Brendan was stuck. "HEY!" he yelled, pounding on the door, but no response. "Are you on his side now or what?!" he yelled out of frustration. Well, too bad for the door. "Swampert go!" he yelled as he pressed release on her pokeball. But nothing happened. He looked around him and then tried again. Nothing. There must be some sort of blocking system in the room. In the multi-region prison somewhere in the middle of the ocean, Brendan had heard they had this sort of thing. The rangers' headquarters in Mossdeep also had a special interrogation room with the blocking system in it.

"Shit!" Arceus, he was stuck here again. He should've put the door full open. Or maybe taken the hint that the lights were on. Maybe. But shit. This whole mission had fallen apart. He needed to get back before Mom and Dad did. His only hope, he thought, stewing as he grabbed a nomel-aid drink out of the fridge, was that with the storm as it was they would be forced to stay overnight.

He finished the nomel-aid as he did a full search of the room, but no pokeballs. He could try ripping out the wiring to disable the blocking system, if that was where it originated from. If nothing interesting happened soon, he would.

...

"I'm beat," moaned Phoebe. She was the only one who had any words left at all. She, Steven, May and Wallace were making their way back from seeing the first batch of Sootopolians hiking safely on their way to Fortree. They hadn't got the nicest reception in Lilycove, which didn't want any trouble. Their electricity was cutting out. Everyone was dashing to and fro with armfuls of groceries and no one gave the Sootopolians a nice look.

The sun was merciless. Steven was wishing to be back in the southward storm. Everyone was streaming with sweat and had a headache. Steven didn't doubt that there was some sort of radiation in this drought. Above all, dead carvahna and magikarp had greeted them in Lilycove's bay, floating lifeless. It had been disgusting and not the greatest reception for the Sootopolians.

The wailmer were steadily making their way back to the League. The battling of the legendaries was very much audible and Steven thought he could see more water funnels miles south under the towering banks of cumulonimbus the Kyogre had summoned.

They still had three more trips to go. Phoebe had the bag of recalled wailmer slung around her. All now had used the unnecessary sweater or jacket to cover their heads under Steven's advisement; sunstroke was not as likely but Steven was well concerned about heatstroke.

When they arrived, red and exhausted, back at the League, the Champion tried to convince everyone else to stay behind.

"We don't have a hospital here, and you all are going to get heatstroke doing a job that's not yours, not to mention exposure to radiation-" Steven said, gulping down a bottle of water.

"Any exposure to radiation is too much," May said, polishing off her fourth glass of water and then retying her shoelaces.

Phoebe shook her head. "Nuh-uh, everyone needs to get to Fortree." Sidney joined her. "Look at you, all cool," she muttered, wiping her face with a towel.

"Why thank you," Sidney returned, jumping out of the reach of an elbow jab.

Wallace came back in from outside, dripping, having poured his water over himself. It was 6:00 p.m. The Sootopolians assembled by Sidney and ready to go mostly ignored Wallace and he had to squeeze through the unforgiving crowd. A few glances of hatred bounced off his back from around the edges of the waiting evacuees.

"Good idea," May exclaimed, and Phoebe enthused. The two girls grabbed more water from the sales counter and rushed outside.

"Who's most beat?" Sidney asked Steven, crossing his arms.

"I can't tell, but I would not like to involve May in further risk. At least the rest of you are affiliated legally with me," Steven said. Wallace stood a distance off, half-turned away. He wore now-drenched loose grey pants and a white 3/4 sleeve shirt, and his long cerulean hair was dripping and uncontainable by any hat. Steven glanced at his friend, thinking a little worriedly the already lean man had dropped more pounds by the way the wet shirt hung on his shoulderblades. Sidney volunteered to swap out with May.

Steven nodded and sent Sidney to go get changed and find sunglasses.

Everything was settled, the Sootopolians were told to protect their heads and faces from the sun, and everyone set off again.

...

May read the list of Sootopolians. She sorted out the ones who were marked to go next. The door moderators and all the foyer staff had already gone, except for one medic who was back in Phoebe's battle room helping with some children whose mother hadn't been located.

It might've been the heat, but May felt annoyed. She had volunteered to help transport the Sootopolians. It wasn't like it would be Steven's fault if something bad happened to her. Maybe in the eyes of the law, she admitted grudgingly to herself, heading back to Sidney's half-empty battle room. Still no text from Brendan.

"Margareta Dietect and your two daughters, you are slated for next departure," May called and the three mentioned came forward. She led them out to the waiting space in the foyer, which felt strangely empty after being jam-packed for how many days. So Brendan was off somewhere, not returning Gallade, and she was stuck doing administration. Yeah. Real nice. She liked to help, but she'd rather help by actually doing something, like going to hunt down Magma and Courtney. Maybe if she waited long enough they'd show up and give her a legitimate reason to do so. They weren't the good guys, her gut told her, despite all their political settlings with Steven. Not by a long shot. Her vision blurred for a moment as she thought of Peli. She wiped the would-be tears away and went to call the next people.

* * *

**AN: This is getting so close to being finished! It'll probably be about 90K when it's done. I hope you all are enjoying it!**


	47. Enough Blood for Three

Shelley sat with Courtney in the rec room. The two shared a bag of grepas in between them, watching reports of water funnels that might become hurricanes and tremors that might become eruptions, and reports of a mysterious green wyvern pokemon seen in the sky.

"You know that kid that you took in Fallarbor? The one that escaped?"

Courtney perked up. She'd been meaning to ask Shelley about the rumours. She wasn't sure how to ask; as a curious friend or as a suspicious Magma admin. "Yes, Brendan Mayer. Once Maxie gets back he has some plan for him."

"He's in the maproom," Shelley said, tossing her hair over a shoulder.

Courtney half-raised herself on the arms of her chair to get up. "What?!"

"I shut him in there, don't worry. Maxie did tell me there was something else he needed from the kid."

"He - he got in?"

"I guess," Shelley shrugged. Courtney sat back down.

"Did you ever think if he has pokemon with him?" she asked. This time it was Shelley who got up, flinching in fear.

"Oh no, I didn't-"

"It's okay, the room has a blocking system."

Shelley sat back down, sighing with relief. Courtney leaned her head on her hand, utterly unsure if she was Shelley's friend or overlord.

"It would not be good if you know, he escaped again-" Shelley said with a smile.

"No," Courtney agreed, matching her expression. "So how's Maxie treating you? Have you joined yet?"

"Noooo," Shelley made a flinging motion with her hand, "I'm just riding it out." Courtney wondered at the half smile that appeared briefly on Shelley's face, hidden around the corner of her mouth.

"The grunts are saying Maxie is ... affectionate," Courtney kind of blurted.

"Oh, yeah," Shelley said with a little laugh. "He's undeniable. Don't you think?"

"He is my commander, so yes, but in that way-"

"Sure, but I mean ... it's kind of why I can't join Magma, it would be a boss and the employee," Shelley laughed.

"Instead, now, it's captor and paid prisoner," Courtney pointed out. She leaned more into her hand. She had to decide. Who was she loyal to?

"Uh," Shelley blushed, making a '_are-you-_trying_-to-make-me-mad'_ face at Courtney, "I guess." Her face lightened. "But really. He's hot. Is he really 37, because those abs are gorgeous..."

Courtney snorted. "Either way I comment, both comments would be wrong."

"Exactly! Haha," Shelley said. "I'm not ever going to join," she confided. "It would be awkward. You know."

Courtney nodded. "So last night?"

"What?"

"The grunts sic'd a mightyena on Maxie's door and there was no response," Courtney said, raising her eyebrows. "Until he found the scratches on the door the next morning."

"As long as you don't gossip," Shelley said. "But ... Yes. He kind of stayed with me."

Courtney nodded again. She was afraid - was Maxie getting ... she didn't know, soft? - or was he using Shelley?

"Relax, Courtney. It's whatever. I'm not going to try and take your position," Shelley said, leaning forward.

Courtney shook herself. "It's not that. I think I hear everyone coming back."

"Great. And we have that kid for Maxie." Shelley stood up and headed for the door and Courtney followed her.

"Yes..." Courtney trailed. Hopefully Maxie would not outright take the kid's pokemon. That was something Courtney just did not want Magma to stoop to.

...

"Hello Courtney, Shelley," Maxie nodded to the two women as they entered his debriefing room. He pulled out his drawer of daggers and swapped out belts and weapons.

"How did it go?" Courtney asked. "Did Aqua make it to Lavaridge yet?"

"No, and they never will," Maxie said, focused on a particularly outfitted dagger with a smooth holed grip that had a light in the handle. He turned it over and put it back in the drawer. He'd already secured the blue stone in his room; he was letting Syder and the others have a look at the red one for entertainment as they waited for more pokerus samples.

Shelley frowned. "What do you mean? Did you get through to Archie?"

"No," Maxie said, slightly sorry-sounding. "You can stay on with Magma as long as you like," he told Shelley, walking up to her. "But you won't be paid as a non-member."

"But I thought you needed to keep me, duct tape right..?"

Maxie's left eyebrow twitched a little in a challenge to figure it out for herself. Her gaze fell to his bloody split lip.

The Magma leader turned to Courtney.

"We're going now to Littleroot. 7:20 isn't too early to arrive."

"Wait," Courtney said. She glanced at Shelley, then back to her boss. "Brendan is here. In the blocking room with his pokemon."

"Truly?" Maxie's expression turned into one of happy surprise. "Of his own accord?"

"Shelley caught him," Courtney said. Maxie turned back to the Aqua admin, although she really couldn't be called that now that there was no Aqua.

"My dear, you're already doing Magma's work," he said with a grin. "What's keeping you? Is it the color scheme you're opposed to? No?"

"I didn't think about it, not like I was doing something for your organization."

Maxie's fingers tilted her chin up.

"But for who," he said. Shelley's narrowed gaze didn't hide the truth. Maxie stepped back. "I appreciate it." All business, he marched out the debriefing room, heading for the blocking room.

Courtney followed him. Shelley stayed.

/

In the hallway, Courtney asked Maxie exactly what had happened with Aqua.

"Archie wouldn't give up," was all Maxie said . Courtney wasn't sure if she wanted to know more.

"They are ... no longer a problem?" she questioned instead.

"No," Maxie said.

Courtney trusted Maxie more than she trusted her guessing skills; whatever he had done, it had gone as planned. Even so, she was fairly sure of what had gone on. It was a bit of a wake-up call to the seriousness of Maxie's aim.

"Are we going to take Brendan's pokemon?" Courtney asked.

"We may only need one," Maxie said.

"Is there no other way? Team rocket, in the Kanto region, was a team of simple criminals, and we are above their crime of stealing pokemon-"

"The child's pokemon must be taken. We will take as few as possible and return them, if possible," Maxie said.

"I see," Courtney submitted.

...

Brendan sat slouched on one of the red love seats. He had kicked the other love seat around the room a few times. He had tried to use flamethrower but there was no pokemon to use it on. He was still mad, holding Swampert's pokeball tightly in one hand.

The door opened and Maxie and Courtney stepped in. Brendan glared at the Magma leader, not getting up.

Maxie stood in front of his prisoner, hands clasped. "You had to come back, and into our blocking room," he remarked.

"It's Wattson's, not yours," Brendan said.

"The furniture is mine," Maxie said, pointedly eyeing the love seat that was banged up and lying on its side by the fridge. "You can pay for your damages with your pokemon." Maxie held out his hand. Brendan clung tighter to Swampert's pokeball.

"You already got Xense, and I want him back," Brendan said.

Maxie's eyebrows arched. "I can return the nuzleaf. After you give me the other pokemon."

Brendan made no move, waiting for what Maxie would use to try and take the rest of his pokemon from their lifelong trainer.

Into the room came a man in a lab coat, a needle in one hand. He gave it to Maxie. Courtney walked around to the back of the love seat, sandwiching Brendan in between her and Maxie. Before the tranquilizer could be jabbed into Brendan's bloodstream, he jumped up and flung himself out of Maxie's reach, rushing back to the counter by the fridge, looking frantically for some kind of weapon or shield as the Magmas walked confidently toward him. Brendan grabbed a wooden cutting board and blocked the needle as Maxie quickly tried to stick the thin instrument in his neck. Withdrawing, the Magma leader tossed the needle to Courtney, focused, and palmed through the board, which splintered, bits of wood flung against Brendan's glasses as he flinched. The two halves of the board fell to the floor and Brendan dove aside as Maxie made a grab for him, only grasping his backpack. Slipping it off his arm, Brendan wriggled away. Maxie tossed the bag on the counter. He might need all the boy's pokemon, including the one still in his hand.

The man in the lab coat stood to the side, watching as Courtney hesitantly made to grab Brendan but he kicked her away. She came back at him and knocked him into the counter, fist heading for below his collarbone, but he knee'd her in the thigh and evaded the punch. Courtney used the momentum and pushed herself off the counter, back-kicking Brendan between the shoulderblades. Maxie was right there and caught Brendan with a fistful of his jacket as the kick stunned him momentarily, efficiently injecting the tranquilizer into a vein on his neck.

Brendan felt completely hopeless and completely furious as he lost consciousness, the quick-working anesthetic quelling the burning energy he was about to summon.

...

Maxie took the pokeball from Brendan's loose hand and put the limp trainer on the love seat. Courtney was panting a bit.

"Thank you," Maxie said to her, leading the way out, Dr Syder at his elbow.

Courtney trailed them. She had automatically went into fight mode but that didn't mean she liked kicking a kid around. She was the sort who preferred the opponent to move first. Her thigh hurt from the knee to it, but she had provoked him, not he her.

He refused Maxie, she thought, that was his error. Still, she decided she'd leave non-pokemon battles up to Maxie from now on.

...

A set of metal bars slid down from the ceiling, partitioning off half the lab.

Maxie released the pokeball he had taken from Brendan into the sector as Dr Syder held a long harpoon-style gun through the bars.

"I wish the room with the blockers had been made the lab," he murmured as Swampert came bellowing out, knowing something was amiss. Trapped behind the bars, the huge pokemon slapped her tail fins together and roared and threw herself at the bars, making everything in the room shake. Dr Syder jumped back but Maxie grabbed the anaesthetic-loaded tool and jabbed it at Swampert as she hurled herself at the bars again. The tip of the needle broke off against her thick dark blue skin and she retreated, opening her maw and preparing a cluster of icy energy.

"Another!" Maxie yelled.

"There's another loaded, the trigger-"

Maxie saw the trigger and the second needle loaded in the clear side. He stood unflinchingly as Swampert pushed herself off the back wall and spewed a geometric net of icy energy that hit the bars and caged them in ice as some of them made hard splitting sounds; the metal was unprocessed enough to be affected. Maxie pulled the trigger as he felt the tip of the harpoon gun hit something behind the spread of ice, and Swampert fell senseless as she again hurled herself at the iced bars, snapping some of the cage with only her weight as she toppled. Maxie let go of the harpoon and covered his face to protect from the shards that went flying.

A moment later Courtney pressed the button to raise the bars. Half of the metal grid did, snapping off the bottom half and sending more ice tinkling to the floor.

"This will be plenty, Maxie," Syder said, walking over to the limp hulk of rubbery fins and smooth, grippy skin. "Enough blood in here for three."

"Excellent," Maxie said. He picked Brendan's bag up off the counter. "Courtney, you may assemble the grunts to head north," he said as his hired professionals rushed around Swampert, swabbing and measuring and weighing.

Courtney nodded and left. So it was happening. Maxie really was going through with this.


	48. He'll Be Fine

As Steven and his party of three arrived back at the League, the harsh sun had simmered down and instead thunder boomed from the south, dark clouds sweeping north like angry brushstrokes. The reception had been absolutely walling in Lilycove; everyone had taken refuge inside as brief tremors portended from the west, and the Sootopolians had walked through feeling the oppression from the stinted residents of the oceanside city. Seemingly deserted as it was, the experience of walking through the streets littered with bikes under the glaring buildings and skyscrapers made one's skin crawl.

Fortree was pressed for room, and both Steven and Wallace had let Sidney handle the brief exchange with Winona. Since the treehouse town hadn't been prepared to take all of Sootopolis, the town was in upheaval trying to find everyone somewhere appropriate to stay.

...

May got up to greet the three escorts as they walked in again, beleaguered. It was 9:21 p.m. May had finished assembling the next crew awhile ago and had gone out to Victory Road to train her snorunt hard, which had now evolved into a glalie. She was mad at Brendan for traipsing off without her and she was mad at Steven for not listening to her and she was tired of everything.

So was everyone else. The Sootopolians were ready to go, but Phoebe flung herself over the sales counter and just stayed there, moaning. The hour-and-a-half-long ocean journey, return, and hiking to and from Fortree with a batch of discontent citizens of nowhere was too much.

Steven winced, rubbing his calves before jogging to his back room to change as May settled beside Phoebe, offering to take her place.

Wallace walked past the group of grumbling Sootopolians, avoiding their criticizing gazes, to stand behind the medical counter and heal the big bag of wailmer pokeballs he carried, six at a time. Although no wild pokemon had bothered them because of the heat, the wailmer were probably also suffering from the inclement weather.

A small tremor shook the League for about 15 seconds. Whoops and oohs of surprise sounded from the crowd.

Steven came out from the back door in a different shirt and pants, slinging his windbreaker back on.

"Ok, we had better head off before it gets too late. The trip should be better with the Groudon settling down. May, Sidney, can you go call everyone else?"

"All the other Sootopolians?" May said, easing up off the counter, leaving Phoebe in her dazed state.

"Yes," Steven said. He came to stand beside her. "It is still dangerous. You felt that tremor. We'll take the last of them and call it quits as soon as possible," he said in a lowered voice. May nodded and turned to go.

"Thank you," he called after her.

She nodded again and went back to the battle rooms.

When all the Sootopolians were ready to go, Steven squared his shoulders and led the way out - into the storm. It was nowhere near as harsh as Steven had experienced earlier, but the night was completely blackened and rain swept down.

The Champion had offered the Sootopolians another night's stay, but they were more than fed up and hungry and wanting to not be jammed 300 to a room.

Roaring still echoed and nets of bright lightning appeared from the distant location of the Groudon and Kyogre.

Steven sent out some of his spelunking companions, golbats who had flash, and they lit up the area in fizzing, spreading canopies of light-giving energy that allowed the refugees to mount the wailmer.

Eventually all the remaining 600 or so evacuees were in the water and the huge pod of wailmer spread out, corralled toward Lilycove's coast by Wallace, May and Sidney as the waves grew ever choppier. The air vibrated and although they didn't stand on ground, Steven had the feeling there were quakes beginning to shake Hoenn.

...

One of those forewarning tremors hit Mauville area, short but not unnoticeable. Magma was almost ready to move it as the storm swept over the sky outside. Swampert was recalled, unconscious, into her pokeball and Dr Syder and his assistants were getting ready to go, checking their revolutionary plan of procedure. After studying the stone in conjunction with the pokérus-positive samples from Swampert and various lotads and zubats, they had devised a solid theory of how pokemon activated the pokérus after it was transferred: friendly co-battling and the subsequent sharing of energy flow seemed to be the process. That would provide the key to activating the life of the virus once it was in the bloodstream.

Maxie went to the blocking room. Brendan was still slumped on the couch. Maxie hefted the kid up, bag dangling from an arm, and carried him through the hallway outside to the sheltered inlet. By the time the kid found his way back home, it would be too late for anyone to stop Magma. Not that Maxie considered that, as he lowered the young trainer to the ground and headed back inside. The rain lashed the waves lapping up on the rocky shore.

Maxie took command of the waiting Magmas. Someone had to watch the base, just in case someone showed up, and Courtney volunteered. She knew what was going to happen. She didn't need to be there to see it, although it irked her a little that Shelley was free to go along.

The troupe headed out into the rain. Courtney was left in the empty base. Most of the news channels were broadcasting the spike in activity at Mt Chimney, if they were able to broadcast anything at all. Predictions were the storm was going to be fiercer than ever tonight. Courtney let herself relax, the odd tremor disturbing her. She had a good job, she mused as she popped frozen grepas in her mouth.

...

Mr and Mrs Mayer had arrived safely at the Mauville hospital for the usual biweekly, 7:00 appointment. A cycling path had been built from east of Petalburg to Verdanturf recently, a path of stones laid nicely through the thick forest, making the trip a mere 40 minutes of fast biking. Luckily, the couple arrived before the rain really began to come down hard.

It was located partways in between Mauville and Verdanturf, adjoined to the local contest hall. Cheery lights from the stripes of continuous windows shone.

Mr. and Mrs. Mayer went inside and made their way to the Rehabilitation wing. They were welcomed by Dr Shannon, the woman responsible for Norman's impressive regain of motion on his right side.

She led him past all the pulleys strung from the ceiling and the ultrasound machines and the weird bicycle contraptions and sat him at the rolling wood table. She put the heat packs under his arm and over it and chatted amiably with Mrs Mayer about recent happenings and their children. Dr Shannon was Harold's mother and told Mrs Mayer that he was supposed to come home tonight due to the activity of Mt Chimney.

"He was really having the time of his life, helping Devon to figure out what was going on with the activity in Mt Chimney," the doctor said. "Is the heat alright?" she asked Norman. He nodded. "It was just too dangerous," she continued to Mrs Mayer.

"I know, it's terrible what's happening, and the Mainland is doing nothing."

"Exactly!"

Mrs Mayer proceeded to tell the doctor about the fire at their house and that Brendan was home but didn't reveal the things he had said to keep quiet.

A tremor shook the floor and startled everyone.

"I better get on with this so you're out before the building collapses," Dr Shannon joked, taking the heat off Norman's arm and proceeding with the usual range of motion stretches, seeing how good he was with flexion and extension. The Mayers were lucky that only Norman's motor skills had been affected by the accident in the field those years ago. As yet, the Mayers were still monitoring the extent of the harm done to Brendan. There was memory loss, for sure, and that was medicated and taken care of, but it was hard to tell sometimes if Brendan's dreams and subsequent behaviour was a result of hormones or something deeper.

As Dr Shannon was massaging Norman's wrist extensors, a message came over the PA (which had very high sound quality):

"All staff and patients in the building, please make your way to the contest hall wing."

"Well, I guess we should get down there," Dr Shannon said, leading the way out and downstairs, joining a straggle of people that converged in the pleasant waiting room. The bright mauve doors that led to the contest hall were closed. Dr Shannon talked to a couple of her coworkers, speculating that the summons was probably the tremors. Mr and Mrs Mayer stood together, reminiscing about the weekends Mrs Mayer had stayed after work to compete in contests with Ninetales.

All of a sudden one of the office staff came running into the room, looking frazzled.

"Everyone stay calm!" she shouted in panic. Everyone, at this sudden alarm, ceased to be calm. "There's a gang of people who've taken over the dialysis wing! They're staying there for now but we have to stay in here and we have to stay calm!" Everyone started to hassle the secretary for details as she frantically closed and locked the door after a few more doctors scuttled in. Firearms were nonexistent in the regions, but the secretary reported with much alarm that they had lots of mightyena and golbat with them and forced all the staff out.

"Mightyena - golbat - like Aqua! The group that's saying the Mainland-"

"Yeah, they have those pokemon!"

"No, these people were dressed all in red and black!" the secretary exclaimed. "They looked like they knew what they were doing, there were men in lab coats with them!"

Lab coats were the dress of Devon researchers. No other profession claimed lab coats; doctors wore plain casual clothes, nurses the same, often made from yannan.

Much speculation and confusion ensued, but with no logical guess of how long they would be stuck, everyone settled down and began to wait. Doctors paced worriedly for the few patients on bedrest they'd had to leave unattended. Thunder, muffled, could be heard and a few tremors shook the room.

Norman called Brendan's number. No answer. Mrs Mayer, worried, texted him on her Nav. No answer.

"Do you think...?" She turned anxiously to her husband. "It could be that group he told us about, they could have him right now-"

Norman pulled his wife into an embrace and let her share her fears with him, hearts beating chest to chest.

"He'll be fine, whatever the case," Norman said, massaging his wife's back, holding her tight.

...

Brendan woke up coughing and spitting rainwater out of his mouth; the wind had turned to a gale and commanded the rain into the small shelter the inlet offered.

He found his bag first and slung it over his shoulder, getting to his feet, fight-or-flight system activating before he realized he was just outside Magma's base and a heavy storm was going down. Relaxing a little, he felt the injection point on his neck. In a minute he had remembered what had happened. He dug through his bag frantically, coming up with ... the same number of pokeballs he'd gone in with. A gut feeling - not really, more of a sixth sense - told him Swampert was missing and the last pokeball was something else. Xense. Brendan looked out across the waters of the inlet just as a bolt of lightning flashed across the area, casting a stark shadow down from the bike path almost directly overhead. In the distance, on the shore of Mauville and nearing the hazy glow of lights from the large city, was a group of figures Brendan could only guess was Magma. He didn't know what they needed Swampert for, but it was probably another step of whatever plan they had in store.

Brendan wasn't losing Swampert. He wasn't losing the companion he'd had since he was nine, the one Norman brought home for him one day, a gift from Prof Birch, back in Kanto. The one who had defended him, who would have died before the aggron got to Brendan.

"Go Swell!" Brendan yelled into the storm, because he could, as the rain lashed down and another tremor made him stumble and he released his brave bird.

Cawing, the magnificent pokemon let Brendan climbed on, and he urged it up into the howling gale, towards Mauville's shore. After Magma. After Swampert.


	49. Transfusion

"I'll lead them," Sidney said over the steady hushing sound of the rain pounding the grass flat. Golbat still surrounded the large group of refugees; they had landed and tramped through Lilycove, which had gone dark, powerless.

"You can't Sidney, it's-" The rest of Steven's comment was cut out by a clap of thunder and a distant, thick earthy rumble.

"Yes I can!" he shouted back. "You need to do something about the Kyogre and the Groudon!" Another tremor rumbled.

Steven gave in. "Stay in Fortree once you get there!"

"Alright!"

With much strain on the vocal chords, the herd of Sootoplians began to move in the direction of Fortree, golbat continuing to light the area around them.

"What do we do?" May had to practically shout even though she was right next to Steven and Wallace just behind him, looking out to sea and then to Mt Chimney through binoculars. He didn't seem to mind the barraging rain and wet as much the other two.

"We'll dodge in back at Lilycove," Steven said with a frown, white hair sending streams down his face. He massaged his leg like it was cramped. The weight of May's soaked pigtails felt like they were dragging her head down.

"The peak of Mt Chimney seems to be bulging, west," Wallace told them as they turned around and straggled toward the darkness of Lilycove, the rain so heavy and fast that the grass was constantly covered in a couple millimetres of water.

...

The powerhouse satellite transmission centers had all been blown out except for the one in Rustoboro that hosted most of Hoenn TV's data. Most of the staff - and anyone who wanted to know anything - were practically camped out at Devon corporation's headquarters, where a team of seismology experts, who had happened to come through Meteor Falls before the inclement weather reached the far side of Hoenn, were frantically trying to deduct the state of Mt Chimney.

Anywhere from a Vulcanian eruption to a Plinian eruption was the word, and everyone scurried about in a busy way as tremors periodically shook the whole building.

Mr Stone, a white-haired gentleman in his mid-50s, had secluded himself in his red-carpeted and gahoman-wood-furnished office. He had managed to get through to Fallarbor's panel chief, but the money-making town was not easy to shut down.

"The lava dome on Chimney has appeared to bulge to 122% of its previous volume!" the Devon President said gruffly into his Nav, pacing. "This could mean an imminent eruption!"

While the panel leader complained about shutting the mines down and not creating all the pokemon products that made Fallarbor affluent, Mr Stone held the Nav away from his ear and gave his attention to the scientist who had just rushed in.

"Our instruments have detected preliminary pyroclastic flows on the east side!"

The president nodded and put his Nav back up to his ear. The scientists ran back out into the group of media personnel and shut the door behind him.

"Your whole city is at risk, pyroclastic flows will soon bury you and your citizens in tephra! Get out of there now, or if you don't, get everyone else out!" Mr Stone interrupted the panel leader's arguments. "Do you hear me? - Go and evacuate your city! - I don't care where they go as long as they get away fast, away from the volcano! - This is Monty Stone, Devon corporation president speaking! ARE YOU NOT LISTENING?" Mr Stone slammed his free hand down on his oiled gahoman desk furiously. "Devon will cancel the max potion development contract when it comes due next month if you don't evacuate now!" he threatened viciously. That convinced the panel leader.

Monty Stone was worried about people's lives, but he and Devon were the cornerstone of Hoenn's economy - that matter was equally important. Food. Food was a big problem - electricity too, the main contractors in Mauville said it was out mostly everywhere, underwater cables torn and underground ones shaken apart. Who knew what would happen to the ecosystem, and who could start analyzing the effects of that on the livelihood of Hoenn's population - or what would be left of it after this.

Monty Stone was about to head out and grab a pair of imaging binoculars to see if he could see Mt Chimney for himself but called Steven first. The Champion's father shared the under-average height and the strong jaw, but Mr Stone's age was easily placeable by the folds around his serious - and usually somewhat irate-looking - eyes.

"Steven. Where are you?" Mr Stone said as his son picked up.

Something indiscernible came through. It took a few tries before Mr Stone gave up.

"Keep safe, son, and make sure those Sootopolians get good shelter. There's gotta be people for the Mainland to build for when they come."

The Devon president hung up and marched off to mix in the urgent happenings.

...

Brendan and his bird fought through the lashing rain to Mauville's shore and Brendan followed the group of Magma until he lost them around a couple of tight residential streets on its low-income outskirts.

Tired and wet, he didn't have all his wits about him as lightning flashed and rumbles from the distant volcano filled the air. There were messages from his parents on his Nav. They were at the hospital. The hospital! Of course! He was practically there anyways. As he ran he read the rest of the message through the water that streamed over the Nav's bright screen, the one pinpoint of light in the dark streets.

The hospital was being invaded? _Must be Magma_. Brendan shoved his Nav back in his pocket and kept running on, the comforting glow of his mom's workplace in the midst of the deluge tempting him on faster.

For Swampert. For Swampert.

...

Brendan lunged in the doors seven minutes later, out of breath and sweating and dripping rain.

No one was there at the desk to greet him. Pot lights shone warmly down from the carved, decorative ceiling.

Brendan texted his parents. They texted back, saying they were in the contest hall waiting room.

He would need Mrs Mayer's keys. He bolted to the left, almost wiping out as his wet sneakers skidded on the smooth tile floor. He shoved the dark pink, contest-logo'd doors open and rushed into the throng of patients and medical professionals, pushing through the people until he found his parents.

"Where were you, Brendan-" Mrs Mayer started.

"Brendan, you have to stay here-" Norman began.

Brendan had already grabbed the keyring from Mrs Mayer's pant loop as she tried to give her wet mess of a son a hug. He took off back through the crowd.

"Brendan! Get back here!" Norman shouted after his son, but Brendan was back out through the doors. "That kid!" Norman ran after his son.

"Norman!" his wife yelled after him.

"Stay here!" he called back and was gone. Dr Shannon, who worked half the week at Mauville's hospital starting today, came to her side and the two mothers tried to give each other some measure of comfort.

After that a few of the male doctors arranged themselves protectively in front of the doors and barricaded them. Petalburg's gym leader and his son might have just endangered the patients and staff further.

...

The dialysis wing had the perfect room.

Swampert lay groggily on the floor. Light yellow, calming lights illuminated the spacious room. Maxie relaxed on a hospital chair, which had him leaned back slightly, his arms resting on the slim polished metal armrests. Grunts stood nervously around Swampert. One had a needle of emergency anaesthetic.

Dr Syder was hooking up Swampert from the biggest arteries in her neck and side through tubes to a long unit that would safeguard her blood in CDPA. No agglutinogen testing was necessary; pokemon blood contained no human immune system triggers.

"Massive transfer protocol?" the assistant murmured as he read the data scrolling out on the machine's screen. The room was quietly tense as the rest of the Magmas stood guard outside the closed door.

"Definitely," the other doctor murmured as he hooked up Maxie to a smaller collection machine with IVs in both hands. "You might feel faint," the doctor said as Maxie's blood began to be taken out of him.

"I know," Maxie said.

A few minutes passed as both Swampert's and Maxie's blood was taken. The Magma leader looked at the languid, helpless pokemon. He was amused by the sentiment that they were, in this moment, tied together somehow, both their vital fluids being collected.

Maxie watched the volume readout go up on both displays and the Magmas guarding the pokemon relax.

He looked silently at Shelley, who was leaning against the tall cupboards along the other side of the room. A couple landscape etchings hung on the wall beside her. She had a frown on that pretty face of hers. A concerned frown, Maxie thought. She's thinking about what this all means. He flashed her a quick grin. She returned it, glancing at his bare chest as it rose up and down in steady breaths, at the blood traveling out of him. The redhead wore the yellow pants and just the white jacket, no T-shirt underneath, a borrowed raincoat lying on the counter behind her. He liked it better without the T-shirt underneath.

"That's good," Syder said sharply, and flows were halted. Swampert panted weakly, smacking her tail fins against the floor.

"Swaaaaaam," she moaned as the assistant asked why they were stopping. They needed a little more than 2.9 litres. This was pretty much equal to a full flush of Maxie's blood in terms of possible consequences, but Maxie wasn't here to get one cup and find out it hadn't been enough.

"The activation process. We'll need the swampert to have enough life left to share energy with Maxie in battle," Syder answered as he swabbed the site for the intravenous on both Maxie's hands, needing to sterilize the transfer tubes. Maxie felt the coolness of the room across his chest, his black slacks and the thin, circuited exp share strapped around his bicep the only things he wore. The exp share was a solid proposition by Syder to aid in the activation. Muffled thunder sounded from outside. He did feel a bit physically faint, but not in the least bit emotionally.

"We have to hurry then," the assistant said, glancing at Swampert's slowly glazing-over eyes.

"Yes," Syder muttered shortly, setting up a second pair of tubes with the other doctor.

"The virus is still at full concentration," the assistant reported helpfully.

"Yes," Syder muttered again. He connected both plastic tubes into Maxie's veins, glancing at both of his coworkers, one stationed at Swampert and one at the long machine. The sounds of a scuffle broke out in the hallway, muffled angry voices startling everyone but Maxie. He'd expected at least a bit of interference.

"Go ahead, Syder," Maxie said to the man.

"Of course," he said and pressed the button that began transferring Swampert's collected, infected blood into Maxie.

Maxie nodded to the main grunt with the needle.

"Ok ... Swampert I guess it is," the grunt in charge, Brodie, said as he released a rather confused numel that waddled around Swampert curiously before another grunt picked it up and put it right at Maxie's side. Another grunt released an aron that stood by Shelley. "Two on one, Swampert and numel! Attack the aron, Swampert!" Brodie commanded, swiping his purple hair back.

Maxie held the hot, furry numel to himself, absentmindedly scratching its head. Swampert didn't move to attack and the racket from outside got louder.

"C'mon, surf!" Brodie yelled. "Use freaking surf!"

In a matter of seconds, everyone was urging Swampert to attack, horrified that the plan would fail at this stage, and of the wrath that would follow. But the pokemon appeared to be too weak as it lay there.

"Should we shoot it?"

"Idiot, that would kill it!"

"Retard, I mean with a needle!"

Even Shelley tried, but the water pokemon was despondent. Severe blood loss. Dr Syder was going pale as were most of the grunts. This was not something they had anticipated.

"Maybe we took too much blood..." the assistant trailed, and Dr Syder slapped him.

Maxie's gaze grew sullen and deep and no one looked at him. They all yelled at Swampert and were kicking it as the door opened and Brendan burst in.

He stopped short as did everyone else. When he dashed to Swampert's side and bent over the glassy-eyed pokemon, Magma and the doctors held their breath. Hoping.

"Swampert... Arceus, get up-" Brendan stood, furious, no hesitancy in him, facing Maxie. "You," he said in a gasping snarl and lunged at the Magma leader, but Shelley grabbed his jacket and pulled him back. The grunts were on him all at once. The tubes kept dripping Swampert's blood into Maxie's veins.

Brendan tore at his restrainers and spit and cursed and took Brodie's knuckles to the bridge of his nose, staggering back against the counter and then lunging back at the grunt-in-charge, uppercutting him square in the cheek and spinning around to elbow a female grunt off him. Brodie yelled in pain, blood dripping from his mouth as he threw himself wildly back at Brendan. Shelley dragged Brendan backwards. Off-balance, Brendan took a full-power fist to the diaphragm and caved in backwards, wind knocked out of him.

Brodie's expression of a bully who has just won unfairly was abruptly cut off as his head snapped back and he was thrown onto the floor by Norman, but as Norman got through to his gasping son the guard Magmas had regrouped and came rushing in, six of them pulling the gym leader away. Norman tried to throw them off, tossing one off as another latched on. "_Brendan_!"

Maxie motioned to Dr Syder to pause the blood transfer and pulled the IVs out of his hand, flipped his dagger out of the belt hidden under his slacks and quickly got Norman's struggles reduced in a chokehold, knife to the throat, pricking blood.

"Dad!" Brendan near screamed but the grunts clawed at him and knocked him back again. Mightyenas that had been outside tried to push in through the barrier of Magmas, excited by the smell of blood.

"Get your Swampert to attack that aron when I say and your father stays in one piece," Maxie grunted, needing to use all his strength to keep Norman from wrenching out of his grip.

"What?!" Brendan's eyes were squinted in adrenaline and desperation. He looked at Swampert. She had perked up a little, but her tongue was lolling out and her amphibian eyes were vacant, her skin was sheened with a kind of clear viscous fluid.

Maxie loosened Norman's throat for a moment. That was one of his favorite things to do. It was interesting to know what one being used as leverage with a dagger to one's throat wanted to say under the circumstances.

"What will that do-" Norman managed. The chokehold resumed its hold and Norman jerked Maxie side to side and the Magma leader pressed the knifeblade deeper to restrain the man. Streams of blood ran down his throat and soaked into his red shirt.

/

"I'll do it and you'll let my dad and Swampert go-" Brendan said frantically, giving up fighting the grunts who were practically piling themselves onto him.

"Swampert stays here," Maxie said, cutting deeper into Norman's throat.

"D-d-d-" Brendan stuttered desperately, "Ok I'll do it - Swampert, surf!"

The large mud fish pokemon assembled a splash of blue energy that quickly dispersed as she flopped back down, exhausted.

"Swampert," Brendan pleaded, crouching by her as the Magmas let him go, and he grasped her clammy cheeks in between her orange cheek spines. "Please, surf, just do it!"

She lay there.

"It looks like neither of your companions will be leaving," Maxie said with a touch of regret, twisting the dagger deeper into Norman's throat, but in that instance four mightyena burst past the barrier of Magmas and began yelping and jumping up on Maxie and Norman, bloodthirsty, and Brendan yelled, "Dad!", too jacked on everything to move.

Swampert heaved herself up with a massive effort, standing by her trainer. She had a duty, and she knew who was her trainer's enemy. She roared, expelling a tidal wave of energy with the last of her strength, the blast purging the four mightyena of all their energy, just as Shelley threw numel across the room.

As Swampert collapsed monolithically, the mightyena dropped, the numel thumped with a squeal into Maxie's arm, and Brendan felt the air move with huge transfers of energy. But the largest force came from his side. The energy returning to Swampert from the mightyena hovered around his starter pokemon as her breathing stirred her expansive sides less and less. As she stilled the energy twisted up out of her, every last particle of it, and Brendan felt it thrown into him in his gut. Swampert's eyes, fixated on him, were lifeless.

The numel didn't get much exp. It appeared dully cheated as Maxie's grip flew from Norman and the Magma leader's eyes flew wide open for a moment. The experience of being aware of pokénergy for the first time racked his body and he went rigid.

"That was enough blood," Syder remarked, an expression of shock on his face.

Shelley was the one to take the lead. She ran to Maxie and commanded everyone out, as fast as possible, Syder helping her carry Maxie.

"Go! Go! We have to leave!" she shouted shrilly. Everyone realized it and beat it.

In a matter of seconds there was only the muffled storm noises from outside, and Brendan's sobs.


	50. The One With the Dagger

Brendan was draped across Swampert, paralyzed, sobs wracking his body as the fluids across her cold skin started to evaporate.

Norman stood, hand to his bleeding throat, and stumbled over to Brendan. Father picked son up and held him tightly over Swampert's body.

The tears gave up on Brendan as he felt the blood from his dad's neck streaming onto his shoulder.

"You're bleeding," Brendan said hoarsely, cheeks wet and hat half off. Norman swayed as Brendan flung open the cupboards and rooted through them, locating white sheets. He bundled some up and pressed the floppy wad to his dad's neck, helping Norman sit down. The gym leader's face was drained of blood.

_It's serious_, Brendan thought as the thick sheets were soaked through. _Emergency. We're in a hospital. Everyone's downstairs. _

A sudden wave of horrifying nausea hit Brendan as he tore himself away from Swampert, heading for the doorway. He collapsed on hands and knees, aggron surrounding him, mudkip swimming in front of him, part marshtomp and part swampert and bleeding, soaking the white ground as the aggron gored his pokemon with their steel claws and horns-

The foreboding of the Groudon surrounded him, but Maxie was the Groudon, and the aggron were his, and a pain lanced through Brendan's brain as he retched, blackness stealing chunks of his vision and consciousness -

...

Steven, Wallace and May dove inside the deserted department store in Lilycove, needing to push the automatic doors open. With nothing to illuminate the interior, they stuck close to the windows as Steven got out his Nav and started texting rapidly.

May sat down on the linoleum. She wrung out her pigtails.

"I would find us towels but I'm not sure where the bath department is," Wallace mentioned, following May's lead with his own drenched, down-to-lower-back locks. He stood a window away from Steven, looking out.

"It's alright," May sighed, beat. "We might be stuck here for a long time."

Wallace opened his Nav and flicked through his subscription to the Hoenn Report.

"Volcano," he nodded, reading the latest blurb. "Mt Chimney, preliminary magma flow."

"Like I said," May said tiredly. Steven now had his Nav to his ear. May looked from one powerful trainer to the other, wondering what filled the space between them. At least they were working together, even though it was obvious there was some kind of stale argument going on. You can't say that for Brendan and I, wherever he is.

Steven walked to the far side of the room. May didn't have the mental energy to listen and figure out what he was doing. Wallace sat on a chair by a bushy potted plant and closed his eyes.

Eventually Steven approached them as thunder hammered sonically at the windows and lightning flicked excitedly across the clouds.

"Wallace. May. We're going to get a bit of sleep." It was midnight. "One hour."

"We might as well stay awake," May commented. "What's happening at 1 a.m.?"

Steven bit his lip. Wallace had opened his eyes and sat straight at respectful attention.

"I... I don't see any other option than for Hoenn's strongest trainers to attempt and defeat the legendaries," the Champion said.

"You are serious?" Wallace said.

"Yes," Steven said. "Roxanne, Flannery, Brawly, Wattson, Winona, and Magma - they have all said they will meet us here at 1 a.m. Flannery had to evacuate Lavaridge because of the threat of Mt Chimney's eruption. Norman didn't answer his Nav. Tate and Liza have too much going on in Mossdeep. Glacia and Drake are coming with Brawly; they were weathering it out in Dewford."

"We had better get to sleep," Wallace surmised, standing.

"Wallace," Steven said, "You don't have to - need to come along, the danger-"

"I'm coming." Wallace's tone was tight and hard like it was about to tear apart. May saw the look that went electrifyingly between them.

Steven turned on his heel. "The home furnishings are on the fifth floor." He led the way through the eerie darkness of the department store. There was a little light from the windows and the flashing of battery run security equipment. May followed and Wallace trailed, May feeling somewhat uncomfortable, wishing whatever these trainers had they'd ditch it soon.

The handcrafted beds took up a quarter of the spacious fifth floor.

"Pick one," Steven said. "Washrooms are over there, May." Wallace went in the direction Steven had indicated but May had dried off enough under her borrowed rainjacket. The Champion settled himself on a queen size and took off his boots. May stood at the end of his chosen bed for a moment. She wasn't going to butt heads with the Champion on the quality of help he was accepting - namely, Magma's aid. If they showed up, anyway, May could take a crack at two-faced Courtney and settle Peli's death as best she could.

"Steven..." she started. He looked at her. She swallowed. "Are you and Wallace good? ... as friends?"

Steven went back to pulling his boots off.

"You can sleep as long as you want, May, I can't oblige you to go further with us."

May crossed her arms. Avoiding the question. She hated that.

"Oh, I'm going," she said, waiting for an answer.

"I'm not going to ask you for your advice," Steven said finally. "You're young. It's you and your journey. Don't get involved in other people's trouble."

_I'll figure it out sooner or later_, May thought critically. She had learned from Rosa, from Rosa's teaching and example.

_I'm done being a kid_. She chose a bed in the corner of the room and tried to make sure it was made right in the dark. _I'm ready to take on responsibility for others_. She jerked the sheets up to the level she liked them. _Just no one will freaking let me._

...

Brendan came to, his head aching. He waited for it to go away before he sat up and looked around; he was in a hospital room by the cheery yellow lights and etched murals hung on the walls. The lights flickered out and came back on again.

Mrs Mayer ran in and clasped Brendan's hand. He looked from one eye to the other as she talked to him in tones of alternating relief and fear. He remembered what had happened, in his dream. Where was his bag? It wasn't here, as he jerked away from his mom to look on either side of the bed.

"Where's Dad and Swampert?" he asked his mom, bits and pieces of the terrifying nightmare returning to him. His mom had his face in her delicate hands and there were tears leaking from her eyes as she tried to explain. Brendan didn't really hear what she was saying over the noise of his own thoughts. He spread his hands. They were cold from touching Swampert's skin. He felt the bridge of his nose and winced. It was swollen and bruised.

_Arceus_. Not a dream.

Swampert was dead. Maxie had taken all her blood with those doctors, if they were doctors at all.

And his dad-where was Norman, still sitting and -

"Dad-" Brendan said, pushing himself up wildly, "Where's-"

"He's in the ICU, all the patients here - our electricity is cutting out - oh Brendan, just stay here, I have to get back to your father, here's your bag-" she gave him his backpack- "-don't go to the dialysis wing, don't go outside, just stay here."

His mom planted a kiss on his forehead and dashed out, fear and urgency etched in her expression.

Brendan sat there, emotions swirling in him. His dad was in critical condition, Swampert was dead because Maxie had killed her and Magma had gotten away. He felt empty. He felt like a failure.

Well, who was he kidding. He was a failure. A wannabe from a shitty town- some kind of realization twisted his mind around and he saw himself from a different view. Who had he ever been kidding, he was a failure. A damn failure. Arceus, he was sitting in this bloody pit he'd dug himself into and there was no one at all. No one. He'd never thought he would need help but Magma had proved to him he did. He was spent against them and they had just started. Useless. Brendan tried to gulp down the knot in his throat as he curled over, head in hands.

His Nav dinged. He wrestled it out of his bag. A text from May. She wasn't bugging him about Gallade, asking for it back; the message said that all the gym leaders were going to meet and fight the legendaries, 1 a.m. at Lilycove.

Magma would probably be there, Brendan guessed. Maybe Aqua too. Whatever the Aqua admin had been doing with Magma.

_Coming_, Brendan texted.

...

Maxie had assembled everyone who was part of Magma back at the base, having recovered from the shock of the blood transfusion. Shelley stood a bit behind him. The members of Aqua who had joined Magma gave her looks. She pursed her lips. Maybe she wasn't alone in her waning loyalty to Aqua. The assistant and the other doctor were on their way back to Kanto, happy to be paid, but Dr Syder had expressed his wish to continue further with his former coworker.

"You have two options," Maxie said, crossing his arms. "One, leave Hoenn. Two, come with me to aid the Elite Four and gym leaders who are planning to assemble a taskforce versus the legendaries in one hour."

The grunts muttered among themselves. The ones who had joined from Aqua muttered along. The new boss was a hard master already.

"How about our pay?" a few demanded, led by Brodie.

"Oh, that's right," Maxie said, quickly distributing paycheques, even to the former Aquas. "Who's going to use that to catch the next ferry to Sinnoh?"

"That's illegal without Commonhouse papers," Brodie said, but Maxie cut him off with a loud, "ha!".

None of the grunts said anything.

"Mt Chimney is going to erupt... There will be earthquakes... No? No one at all?"

A group of 4 shuffled apart from the rest and said they were going to stay on and fight the legendaries, but Brodie stayed with the majority, arms crossed.

"What will the rest of you do?" Maxie asked, accepting the willing quartet.

"We'll do what we want," Brodie sneered. "What would you do if your boss just ditched you because you wouldn't risk your life in a battle where you're sure to die? You never told us about this! So see ya!" Brodie pushed through the Magma grunts and flung open the doors. Four mightyena jumped on him, claws out, energy root overdose making the wolf pokemon seethe with rage as Brodie disappeared screaming under their ferocious jaws. Courtney had them leashed on chains and stood just outside, out of the range of flying carnage.

The snarling and howling of the mightyena chilled the room as they ripped through the Magma and blood spread like a red grid along the floor tiles.

Maws red and teeth dripping, the mightyenas left Brodie's mangled remains, torn organ and muscle strewn around his corpse, strung out of him. Courtney jerked the bloodthirsty wolves back, the metal chains snapping taut as they barked and lunged for the rest of the Magmas.

"I take it back!"

"Back, Meyan!"

"AHHH stop them!"

Maxie pressed the remote control in his hand and the doors shut, fixing the length of chain that the wolf pokemon had and relieving the strain on Courtney. The disloyal Magmas backed out of range, paycheques still in hand, the few who had been entrusted with knives unsheathing their weapons.

"Claim their pay," Maxie nodded to the four who stood in immeasurable relief at his side. They glanced nervously at each other. "It's all yours. Everything they have, if you'll take it."

Three of the four nodded to each other, gripped their knives and moved for the larger group they had just defected from, the fourth trailing them. As the sectors of Magma bristled to confront each other, Maxie opened the doors and nodded to Courtney to let the snarling mightyena have more chain.

The disloyal Magmas were caught in a pincer; the mightyena tore through them rabidly from behind and the four others battled them from the front. Screams and yells and spatters of blood filled the room. Maxie watched the four carefully. Only the trio fought like they meant it.

It was over in a heated few minutes when Maxie again shut the doors to keep the mightyena at bay. The four loyal backed away from the rabid pokemon and the brutal carnage of their former cohorts, blood and gore and lifeless bodies. They each harvested a fistful of paycheques. The third reluctant one, maybe about 18, had gone pale though, and had a hand to his bloody side. Maxie beckoned him forward as the other three discussed in different emotional tones who would get whose things.

"Why did you choose to stay with Magma?" Maxie demanded sharply as a current of blood reached his shoes.

"I-I think the legendary pokemon are interesting and I want to stay... I have nowhere else to go-"

Maxie unsheathed his nine inch blade. "I don't have room for sightseers anymore."

The kid balked. "I-I'm loyal to Magma and everything, it's just killing is... We never had to, I mean, kill..."

Courtney had opened the doors and recalled the mightyena.

"I have no room," Maxie enunciated. The kid bolted out the door.

Maxie sighed and sheathed his knife. He faced the three who had passed his test.

"I'm afraid this mess does have to be cleaned up."

"The ocean's just outside," one of the three said gamely. Maxie nodded to the slim metal troughs in the wall in which all the Magmas' pokeballs sat, and the three went with excited eyes to divvy up that treasure as well and pick the pokemon best for the cleanup job.

Maxie moved past the carnage out into the hallway.

"Excellent job, Courtney," he said to his admin. He gave her her paycheque.

She nodded, accepting the praise. Maxie scrutinized her for a moment, looking for any doubt in her expression, but she didn't waver, only avoided looking into the room. Maxie did have a certain fondness for her, how she seemed to look up to him and accomplished the hardest tasks without complaint, yet was delicate enough that she avoided specific parts of his doings.

"Do we need to watch the base anymore?" she asked.

"No," Maxie said. He took out his Nav as it vibrated; it was Steven saying the plan was a go. "We'll leave right away. Dr Syder is preparing the stones."

"I'll be ready," Courtney bobbed her head. She walked away briskly as Shelley came out of the room.

Facing Magma's leader, the Aqua admin had a look of astonishment and horror on her face. Maxie mirrored it with a half grin. Shelley might not have a physical blade threatening her, but she was in a precarious position. Maxie didn't need her anymore.

"That - that there - is that what you did to the rest of Aqua? _Did you_?!" Shelley screeched at Maxie, who stood unflinchingly. The Magma leader supposed she had put two and two together from listening to the final grumblings of the Aqua conscripts. Perhaps she did have some deduction skills. "You murderer! Complete beast! Your own men and mine!" She grabbed his coat and shook it and when that didn't have much of an effect, she slapped him across the cheek and stood, trembling with horror.

"I didn't see you doing anything to stop me," Maxie commented.

Shelley's shoulders shook and shrugged emotionally and she slapped him again.

"Are you quite done?" Maxie said, touching his stinging cheek lightly. Shelley's look held its astonishment and outrage.

"_Did you do that to Aqua_? To Archie? Is that why they're not reporting them on the news anymore? _ANSWER_!" Shelley burst out. Her cheeks were flushed.

"I did," Maxie said calmly. He saw something twitch and writhe for a second behind Shelley's eyes. "What do you think of it? This-" he motioned to the scabbing slice through his lips - "- was from Archie. We fought." A slight smile crept along his mouth. That had been a good fight. "What do you think, my dear?"

Shelley kept staring at him in an equilibrium of horror and shock.

"Pretend if you'd like to. You've told me why you joined Aqua. You're the rebel. You're showing your trainer sister that she has no right at all to be daddy's favorite. Oh, I understand. You're not nobly loyal to Aqua, only unused to slaughter." Maxie was right up against Shelley and pulling her to him.

"You just killed-" Shelley started, struggling against his hold.

"Don't do that, Shelley," Maxie admonished dangerously.

"What am I doing? Don't preach at me, preach at yourself!" She paused her struggles, panting furiously. She didn't understand his plan and so she couldn't see why the killing had been necessary, Maxie knew. That was fine with him. In a twisted way, he liked to leave that possibility open, that she would break and rebel and he would have to silence her.

Maxie clasped her close and brought his lips to hers. She resisted him and he bit her hard back and bent her back over, bent over her. Captive, her lips loosened and Maxie felt it and bit her harder, tasting her blood, prising her mouth into acceptance. He was her master for several long seconds more, caging her in his heat and passion and then he let her go. She stumbled back, wide-eyed.

"Go, before I have to save your life again," Maxie said.

"Save my life ..?" Shelley trailed.

"I'm the one with the dagger, Shelley. Don't fight me like Archie did." Maxie clasped his hands and walked away to see if Syder was ready yet.


	51. Eruption

May had told herself she wouldn't oversleep and she didn't. She woke up in the darkness of the department store to the disturbance of a tremor. She checked her Nav; it was 1:02 am. She got up in the dark and felt her way downstairs around the rows of beds and cabinets and price tags.

Steven was standing by the front doors and the stormy light that came through the rows of windows, two other people with him. The storm was still beating down outside.

May approached them. The two were Brawly and Flannery; May shook their hands. They remembered her from the gym challenges she'd made. Brawly was a surfer; Flannery was into martial arts and had her red hair tied in a high ponytail. They were both dressed heavily for the weather. Flannery wasn't a very good trainer as May remembered, though. Glacia and Drake stepped in out of the gale, reporting the absence of anything in the ruins by Dewford.

May listened as Steven talked about the specifics of the plan; those comfortable with flying would launch aerial attacks after making sure they got the others to the highest point in what was left of Sootopolis. They would first try and bring down the legendary that was losing, so probably the Groudon.

The conversation was heavy. The risk was high.

Wattson was next to enter. He brought a bright lantern and lit up the entrance. Wattson was a rather loud man but genial all the same and talked with May as if battling legendaries was something one did every fortnight. Roxanne was next, and Wallace came down from upstairs and talked to her for awhile. May noticed he was carrying a long tool under his arm, keeping it close to his side.

Magma was next to arrive; Courtney and the three who had proven themselves. She respectfully greeted the Champion and introduced the three others with her: Chilinoan, Marshal and Cress, explaining Maxie was taking care of securing more help and would meet them as soon as possible.

May glared unabashedly at the Magma admin until she noticed. Courtney looked away as Steven ran over the plan again.

"You've got a problem with our new help?" Wattson said jovially to May, loud as ever. May clenched her hands as Roxanne and Wallace glanced at her.

"Maybe," May murmured. _And where's Brendan_ ...

...

"I am comfortable in the air, as Maxie will be as well. However, our other members will be more useful on land," Courtney told Steven. "Thank you for allowing us to aid you."

"Thank you for being willing." Steven sighed. He didn't like filing papers and calling people, but he didn't like sending his friends and coworkers into a daunting fight versus powers no one fully understood. _And Winona's late again._ Just as he thought it, she walked in, sweeping off her visored cap, wearing a tight waterproof long-sleeved jacket over her gym suit. Only she and Brawly were still dressed as if they were at work.

"How many swellow do we need?" she asked Steven, striding up to him.

"Nine. We'll have those nine on the ground and five in the air," Steven said, an unintended brusque side to his tone.

The Magma admin nodded to the flying gym leader. Winona gave ultra balls to those Steven indicated. Wallace looked down as he accepted the pokeball.

"Are we going?" Winona said after she was done, tossing her own pokeball in one hand, nails painted a dark lilac.

"I believe everyone is ready," Steven said. Winona tapped her boot a couple times. "Friends - I cannot compel you to join me," the Champion said to everyone, and May, May who he truly didn't want to come. He wished he could force her to stay. He didn't want young blood on his hands or anyone's. "Tate and Liza, Norman, Sidney and Phoebe have chosen not to join this endeavour, and they have every right to." Steven swallowed. "It's dangerous."

"But it needs to be done," May said. Everyone looked at her as if noticing the stranger in their midst for the first time.

Steven felt foreboding and fear in the room. He still hesitated. He needed help; he didn't want help. He needed everyone to support him and he needed to everyone to leave before he could put their lives on the line.

"This will be a pokemon battle. There will be NO harming of the Groudon or Kyogre in a physical sense. The Mainland might shut us down if we did so."

Winona crossed her arms. "Hoenn might be shut down if we don't," she remarked. The statement hung.

"It's against everything to kill a pokemon," Glacia spoke.

"But it can be done," May murmured. She saw Courtney glance up at her.

"And I, for one, believe we can accomplish this task like we would any battle," Glacia finished, others supporting her.

"There isn't any better plan?" Winona said flatly.

"I've heard-" Steven started. A forceful tremor started to shake the building, but lasted and grew in intensity until everyone hung on to something or someone and the quake knocked merchandise off the shelves and some of the trainers on their backs. Structural splitting sounded and it didn't stop, it tossed the earth under the store.

23 seconds later it died down to a mere rumble of an aftershock. The assembled group picked themselves up from the potions and revives and battle items littering the floor and quickly let go of whoever they had clutched onto.

"Everyone alright?" Steven said. Positive answers followed, and Wattson got his lantern out from under the jumble of items. The Champion took a deep breath. The pressure was rattling him and if these quakes got worse - now was not the time to think about it.

"Everyone who's going, let's go!" Steven said, stronger than he felt, and led the way out into the arresting clashing of thunder lightning and pouring rain and dark streets. Winona exited, then May and Courtney and the Magmas and Glacia and Drake and everyone else.

They waited for the order to take off. Steven surveyed them. _This is what it is, then. _

"To save Hoenn," he said, and released Meta, who materialized out of its pokeball in a stream of light. More light streams solidified into a host of swellow, Winona's altaria, and Courtney's golbat. Steven clambered onto Meta's smooth top, already slicked with rain. There was an orange light to the west that caught Steven's attention. He thought volcano, but forced himself to focus on the task at hand.

His company mounted their steeds and Steven commanded Meta up. The steel pokemon levitated and ascended quickly. It swivelled south to face the utterly dark and twisting eye of the storm from which furious roars and grating calls echoed out across the waves.

/

They set off without a word further. There was no way to communicate and be heard in the raging downpour. May glanced behind her, bringing up the rear, looking for Brendan. The jerk, he was going to be late and was going to be stuck in Lilycove alone- _if_ he made it, dear Mewtwo, maybe she shouldn't have told him.

The rain lashed her face like icicles; the wind clawed through her jacket; her heart pounded in a brave attempt to sustain her circulation as the borrowed swellow fought through the gale under the bloated thunderclouds. May banished all thought from her mind, focusing on holding on. She felt a sense of partnership with this pokemon she hardly knew and she urged it silently on, wordlessly, willing it to fight, willing everyone to fight and win.

The ocean was below them, a length of wet and of numb eardrums later, and May gradually became aware of someone flying along beside her. She looked over. A flash of lightning lit up Brendan and Swell. He yelled something at her, a continuous stream of water flying horizontally back off his hat, Swell's headcrests whipped back, bag shouldered and pulling at him, rain battering at his glasses.

She didn't hear what he said, only saw the fiery look in his eyes, and the half-grin, half-grimace on his face. She nodded at him and again withdrew all her consciousness into herself, seeking sensory solace.

...

The company reached the eye of the storm in relatively good time. The swellow were exhausted as they banked into a wide sweep around the Groudon and Kyogre, fighting the currents of wind as water funnels swarmed up to the low clouds and whipped up the waves below.

The Groudon was backed into the remains of Sootopolis, only one spar of tiered land still standing at full height, infrastructure of the houses ripped and crumbling. The fallen sections of the rest of Sootopolis' outside wall stuck precariously far out of the water at angles, displaying falling-apart crossections of the once-great city.

The Kyogre, only detectable by the swirling whirlpool in the ocean's surface, summoned protective water spouts up 60 feet high into the rain and sheet lightning as the Groudon lunged and blasted a funnel of blazing, twisting energy towards it with a mighty roar, making it seem freakishly like the middle of the day. The solarbeam attack was as big as a train but as it crashed into the Kyogre's water spouts it met a solid wall of water. As the natural beam of light spent itself and the Kyogre's moans made the air reverberate, Steven led everyone swooping through the air that had just been seared by the solarbeam. Winona, Courtney, Brendan, Drake and Maxie, who had arrived unnoticed on Crobat, moved into a protective chevron and made sure everyone else landed on the jut of cultivated grass gracing the top tier of Sootopolis, the remaining volcanic wall providing partial protection from the rain only. The grip of night retook the battlefield as the light from solarbeam dimmed. May rolled to her knees, off the swellow, and wished she could stay there, heart hammering, looking up into the rain and broiling clouds as the airborne force wheeled away. Somehow she managed to get to her feet. The grassy patch was about half the size of the League's battle rooms and the edges were steep cliff-like dropoffs from where the rest of the impressive city had been blasted away. Everyone fit with room for pokemon, just. One wrong move and you'd plummet 120 feet to the ocean below.

Steven led the air force around the Groudon, flying level with its eyes as the ancient pokemon backed up, creating monstrous 10-foot high churning waves. The force's mounts fired off attacks; meteor mash, dragonbreath, aerial ace, sludge bomb. The attacks seemed puny as they impacted the monstrous Groudon, which swung its plated head to one side and almost knocked Courtney out of the air. Her golbat was struggling to fly.

Giving off a grating roar that made May's ears hurt as she released Etz, the Groudon lunged through the waves and blasted another blinding solarbeam at the Kyogre's underwater location. The intense energy impacted the ocean, throwing up a circular wall of water into the air that smacked Metagross and Winona's altaria aside. They fell like water droplets. Suddenly, the solarbeam energy pooled and the Kyogre threw a supercharged thunder attack upwards, absorbing the energy from the solarbeam as the oceans' depths held the water legendary safe. Lightning crackled to the sky and some kind reaction caused a blizzard of organic crystals to synthesize and glitter through the wind and rain.

Steven and Winona pulled up, drenched but escaping the hungry waves, as the rest of their flying phalanx swooped around the Groudon's shoulders for another set of attacks. The Groudon stumbled backwards as Maxie swooped in, using crobat's superior speed. The bat air slashed the legendary's wide snout, driving it backwards into range of the group on the volcanic spar.

"Leaf blade!"

"Rock slide!"

"Flamethrower!"

"Tri attack!"

"Ice beam!"

"Crunch!"

"Shadow ball!"

"Eruption!"

"Focus punch!"

"Energy ball!"

The attacks from the tight bundle of earthbound trainers leapt forward at the Groudon in a dazzling display of different colours and kinds of energy. It seemed to have an effect, for the Groudon heaved its lumbering mass around to try and face its new threat. Half the trainers commanded their pokemon to keep attacking as the Groudon loomed in and the other half backed up against the rock wall. Shelley had elected to come with Maxie, who had dropped her on the top of the limited plateau and, as she was frightened out of her mind by the leering, massive head of the Groudon, she whacked into someone else. She whirled and did a double take.

"Flannery?" Her speech was completely lost in the cacophony of pokemon cries. The gym leader did a double take as well.

"You- Shelley-" Flannery said, and then the present situation separated them.

Taking advantage of the Groudon's distraction, the Kyogre propelled itself upward, its gleaming blue top causing the ocean to suck itself in like when you get out of a full bathtub. With a moaning siren call it gathered a swirling galaxy of icy energy and with a powerful surge of its flippers, it fired the spiky web of ice beam towards the Groudon, hitting it square in the back.

"We gotta do this more often!" Brawly yelled in excitement. No one heard him. The Groudon roared as the spines of the ice beam crystallized in a cage of energy halfway around its bulk, swiping its huge claws at the band on the spar of Sootopolis.

"Roxanne!" Brawly yelled as Rustoboro's gym leader fell with a shriek, with a few other pokemon. He ran to the edge but she was too far down for him to reach, hanging onto the plumbing of half a building, waves crashing at her feet in the dark.

A great creaking filled the air - odd to hear, a creak louder than thunder - as the Groudon shimmered with air-bending heat and sent the burning, searing attack out around it, blasting and shattering the icy cage. It turned, heaving a enormous tidal wave slapping at the Kyogre as the land-bound crew's pokemon hit it with another barrage of various attacks.

The air crew had completely disintegrated. Winona weaved through the net of icy energy, which was turning to real ice reacting with the rain, deftly steering Altaria until she was out the other side. She wheeled and Altaria dove in on the Groudon with a sky attack just as Meta zoomed past, pausing when Steven commanded a meteor mash. Maxie and Courtney flew close together, bombing the Groudon with their poison or flying type attacks. The Groudon grated in annoyance, too heavy and slow to specifically hit one of its attackers. Drake on his flygon battled the wind, the dragon-ground type wheeling around the Groudon in a circle, spitting flames of energy from its mouth.

The Kyogre had gone under and the Groudon bellowed in confusion.

Brendan was trying to keep Swell level in the rain, as they hovered around Roxanne's precarious point. It was too dark and the rain streaming down Brendan's glasses prevented him from seeing exactly where she was. Brawly was yelling at him from above, and Glacia had joined him worriedly, still ordering her glalie to attack the Groudon.

"Ok Swell, I can't damn well see so I need you to pick up the girl and put her back on top," Brendan said, yelling and not really hearing himself. He felt a faint understanding pass between them and Swell dropped a few sudden feet. Brendan's heart collided with his epiglottis as Swellow dipped heavily, Roxanne in its grasp, and swooped back up. The bird dropped the girl and with poweful wingbeats regained altitude above the legendaries. "So you still have energy left," Brendan yelled. Swell cawed enthusiastically back and beelined for the Groudon's head.

/

Only a few of the pokemon on the spar were able to reach the Groudon with their attacks, and in the bedlam no one had the wits to notice exactly who had fallen. The Groudon luckily was quite dense and kept swinging at its lesser assailants, too slow to do any damage.

May had switched Etz out for Tropius and had already landed a few solarbeams. If all the trainers had been attacking normal pokemon, they could have defeated the League ten times over. What would it take?!

Finally the Groudon let out an eruption of glowing molten energy that thickly descended downwards through the air in a wide umbrella. It roared with triumph as several of its airborne attackers were hit and fell to the ocean. This was a transenergy attack and where it didn't fell pokemon, it caused huge bursts of steam to rocket up from the ocean's surface.

/

The fire attack was super effective against Meta and the steel pokemon plummeted like the hunk of metal it was. Steven slid off as everything whipped past him and he cannonballed into the dark, icy depths, his eardrums blanketed in constant sound as the conflicted currents jerked and tossed him where they willed.

/

Winona's altaria was hit and so was Courtney's golbat. Maxie swooped under his admin and somehow managed to wobble away from the rushing pockets of steam while squirting a potion into the golbat's mouth.

/

Altaria faltered and Winona urged her bird upwards again but the blue and white pokemon couldn't do it. They fell into the lake part of Sootopolis - indistinguishable from the ocean now with the barrier mostly destroyed - and Winona's lungs filled with water and she found herself among weeds at the bottom of the sculpted lakefloor. Pushing off, she kicked for the surface but came up short. Struggling, her oxygen-starved, panicked mind didn't realize there was a snarl of fishing line and weed that had caught on her boot zipper. Spots began to swim in her eyes.

/

The Groudon turned to the trainers on the remnant of Sootopolis and unleashed another solarbeam as the remaining airborne trainers kept bombarding it. Kyogre was nowhere to be seen but the water funnels were still at large and began to conglomerate and twist into larger systems; however, those moved away from the core of the battle.

May saw the energy the Groudon was gathering lightly about its shoulders before anyone else on the small plateau and yelled to everyone, "Recall your pokemon! It's gonna attack! It's preparing solarbeam!" She was used to the look of it by now. She grabbed the person closest to her and shook the person and repeated her message, and then the next and the next, and they seemed to get it and recall their pokemon. Wallace was nowhere to be seen and a few of the Magmas were bending over the edge of the spar, looking for their pokemon in the darkness.

Solarbeam flared and engulfed the small area in its clean, blazing light. All the trainers froze in wonder and shock at being in the middle of such a magnificent torrent of energy, but when it dissipated there was not one conscious pokemon left among them.

The Groudon didn't attack again.

Instead, it shoulder-checked the lone spar of Sootoplis with all its bulk.

The spindly section shook and parts of it broke off and jutted out like when you bend back a young splintery 2 by 4. Houses fell.

The Groudon wound up and smashed into it again, snapping it somewhere halfway up, and the top 50 feet of it began to tilt backwards, gaining speed as it went.

The initial rush flung May and everyone else up weightless, the ground tilting back underneath them, but then they were falling and people were tumbling over the edge and trying to get a foothold on the shielding rock wall that was becoming the only available floor. The ocean rushed towards them and no one could stand straight on the curved, rocky surface - the plummeting spar passed 90° and went tip first and all the trainers went sliding off. May reached her arms into a diving position and jumped, thinking in a panic she hadn't had time to recall her own pokemon. The darkness prevented her inner ear from coordinating with her vision and she hit the water completely disoriented.

A moment of calm, freezing thickness around her and then the last of Sootopolis' great height crashed into the ocean.

Jagged blocks broke into the waves and houses were crushed upside-down by the ocean's fists, and they, forced down by momentum and their own weight, sought to crush anything under them. Something significantly heavy thudded into May's chest as she floated, bubbles everywhere and currents flinging her around. It drove the wind out of her and she blacked out.


	52. The Eye of the Storm

Elsewhere in Hoenn, there was no hope at all of preventing Mt Chimney from detonating.

Fallarbor had gotten its act together too late.

Pyroclastic flows erupted from the mountain which gave off clouds of ash and soot, as if Fallarbor needed any more. The lava dome collapsed. The tephra surged down the mountainside, headed straight for Fallarbor at 650 km/h. The dense, textured waves of the mixture of hot gas and rock blasted into and saturated the flat mining city before anyone could decide now was not the time to take pictures.

The earth shook. And just like that, Fallarbor was gone, along with most of its residents.

Harold was a couple miles away. He and a few people he knew had gone ahead; the combined threat of the volcano, his mother's worry, and the infection in his side wound from the Meteor Falls run-in had led him to persuade his group of close friends to head for Mauville or at least Lavaridge. Fallarbor's hospital was always chock full of miners, and there was a kind of bias that led them to snub their noses to researchers wanting treatment.

The blast of hot gasses knocked everyone flat on their backs.

When they got up, after the ground had stopped rumbling under them, they saw the smoke and ash rising from the volcano's peak and ran.

...

A graceful creature coiled itself around Winona and elegantly pulled her to the surface, where she gasped in precious air, albeit sucking in rain at the same time. Her rescuer with the broken end of a snarl of fishing line and weeds in one hand surfaced, long cerulean hair drenched and dripping over his face. Milotic unwound from Winona as the flying gym leader treaded the rough water. Wallace looked at his sister for a moment as lightning strobed across the sky and then mounted Milotic and surfed away to where someone else had fallen.

Winona cleared her mind, searching the dark sky for any glimpse of cloudy white wings and blue down. A sudden current threw her as she unhooked a pokeball from the loop at her waist, and she bobbed under for a moment. Coming up spitting, she released her swellow and grabbed onto its talons. It struggled up and she signalled it with a click of her tongue to do the roll mount. It flew up higher, and Winona rolled onto her front as it dropped her and looped around to come up under her, stopping her fall.

She soared away at the Groudon.

...

Maxie steered his crobat away from the Groudon that was mucking about victoriously in Sootopolis's destruction, trainers swooping around the ancient and floundering in the water as the Groudon called up tremors deep in the ocean floor.

He had the red stone slung on one side of him and the blue stone on the other. He had a Nav extension in his ear so that Syder, in a campout on the nearest shore, could tell him when to try to absorb the stone's energy. Now that the pokerus pumped through his blood, Maxie could feel the potential energy stored in the gems at his side, and he couldn't wait. Every so often he checked to make sure the wireless sensors were in place on the stones.

Allowing crobat to do figure eights through the downpour a ways away from the confusion, Maxie wondered where the Kyogre had disappeared to below the waves. The Groudon had to faint, sooner or later. There was no way it could survive this constant barrage of attacks - the Magma leader saw that some of the company had been rescued and put on top of the same spar, though now much shorter and uneven, torn off mid-house level. Still the trainers ordered their pokemon to now direct their attacks upwards at the Groudon as Winona and Drake had perfected looping around it in opposite directions. Both their mounts fired dragonbreath attacks simultaneously and the Groudon didn't seem to be able to pinpoint which was which.

The storm seemed to calm just a bit and Maxie continued allowing Crobat some respite.

...

Roxanne, Wattson, Brawly and the Magmas had been re-elevated and stood among the wreckage of Sootopolian dwellings, clambering up where ceiling had smashed in or where fallen furniture blocked the way to help their pokemon get a clear shot at the Groudon.

On a more precarious heap of churned land, Flannery was pulling Shelley up onto a basement floor sticking up at an angle.

Spitting water, Shelley accepted the help and clung onto a pipe protruding out of the sloping floor while Flannery released a torkoal. The turtle pokemon snorted steam out its nostrils and upon Flannery's command sent a stream of flames churning several meters ahead into the Groudon's thigh.

"Come on!" Flannery yelled to her sister.

Shelley blinked through the rain, drenched and dripping. She hauled herself up unsteadily. What a place for a reunion. In any other circumstances, Shelley would've snubbed her younger sister and left. But not here.

"Hydro pump!" Shelley yelled through the deluge, releasing her crawdaunt which joined torkoal at the edge of the slab of sloped concrete. Shelley wedged her foot against some kind of bar in the floor, as had Flannery.

The water type and the fire type unleashed their attacks temporally, lighting up the night with clashing torrents of opposing energy. Somehow they worked as one and the Groudon bellowed as that combo and Winona and Drake's air strategies made impressive critical hits.

Somehow the two sisters were working together. Shelley still held a deep grudge against Flannery. Although Flannery was the youngest of the two, and a horrible trainer, their dad had given her the gym position. Not yet, I'll decide soon, next week maybe, had been her dad's mantra through three years after Shelley had finished her experience period, and then as soon Flannery was out of school -

Shelley had left home that day, her ambitions torn to nothing by her father simply because, according to him, she was too ambitious. And now Lavaridge had a weak gym leader.

"Hydro pump again!" Shelley commanded her pokemon as Flannery's torkoal launched another flamethrower, precariously balanced on the tilted edge. So Flannery had gotten herself in the Champion's special trainer team. If they came out of this alive, Shelley would settle things, she promised herself. Once and for all.

...

Steven fought towards the surface but he was so tossed by the churning ocean that he didn't know if he was floating upwards or on a current. Abruptly something smooth and strong coiled around him and powerfully shot him up to the surface. He sucked in air, face to face with the serene, deep eyes of a milotic. The elegant pokemon kept him above the surging waters as he released Skarmory and managed to mount the steel flying pokemon. As they gained altitude Milotic went rising and dipping like a Loch Ness over to Wallace. The man with the cyan hair grabbed onto the rein-like extensions that grew from above his pokemon's eyes, heading for a spot of flat land, formerly Sootopolis' ground level. Steven had no time for thank-yous; he joined the acrobatics of Courtney, Winona, and Drake. The Groudon bellowed in frustration as it let loose a razor-sharp disc of energy that Winona evaded just in time with a swift tuck of Swellow's wings. The storm had lessened; shafts of moonlight struck through the heavy clouds in some places and the thunder had died away. The ocean grew calmer without the Kyogre battling just under its surface as the trainers continued their attacks dauntlessly.

...

Brendan, finding most of Swell's attacks were close range, gave the others priority as he frustratedly wished he'd worn his contacts. As Swell banked around the sinking wreckage of Sootopolis' last high point, he spotted May's green bag floating at the surface.

"Grab that!" he yelled at Swell, who obliged by beelining almost directly vertical and pulling up sharply as it grasped the bag in its claws. Brendan's heart was getting tired of being jerked from his skull to his feet. He couldn't see May anywhere near. Maybe she'd just lost her bag - no, there's Etz clinging to a raft of seaweed and debris! The sceptile was croaking, peering into the depths around it for its trainer. "Hover around Etz!" he told Swell, and as the bird again swooped down to skim the waves, Brendan shoved his glasses into his zippered jacket pocket and dove off Swell's back into the water, a desperate plea to find May surging through him.

The ocean was like a knife. Brendan closed his right eye and got a sense of vertigo staring down into the sinking, smashed sector of Sootopolis. He swam downwards with a couple strong strokes. He saw May, limp and slowly descending downward, half-obscured by a grid of metal infrastructure.

Kicking and pulling at the water, it seemed like it took forever to get to her. He managed to hook his arms under her and kick his way out from under the metal grid. Lungs bursting, he pushed off the steel but a sudden, nefarious current thrust Brendan up to the surface, sweeping May out of his grip.

"May," he half-gasped, coming out as more of a squeaky coughing noise, and dove back under, arms burning as he breaststroked as fast as possible; May had been carried a several meters horizontal in those couple seconds. Desperately and without thinking, Brendan shot energy backwards, twisting the water into a propelling pump. In a few seconds Brendan had both of them barely above the choppy waves, treading water for his life, screaming for Swell to pick them up. Talons and claws grabbed Brendan and he hung into May until they were let onto sweet ground - a jagged small spit of wreckage surviving, volcanic foundation unharmed. Brendan nearly fell off but recovered. There was barely room to sit the both of them.

...

Courtney on her golbat flapped back towards the Groudon, which continued to threaten its attackers with knifing stone edge attacks.

The kid hadn't noticed her rescuing him. She had never meant to purposefully harm anyone in the Cave. Even if that girl that Brendan had just saved held a grudge, Courtney herself couldn't hold herself responsible for consequences she hadn't expressly incited.

...

You were taught CPR in trainer's school. It was hard to do it right in the middle of an exhaustingly long battle with a legendary pokemon while a volcano city went toppling into the ocean around you.

By some stroke of luck, moonlight broke through the clouds right beside Brendan and May and shed light on May's face which was beginning to go blue. Brendan only remembered the compressions part and went at it. He'd lost his hat. His hair dripped thin streams of water. Was it 30 seconds and 5 rest? Didn't matter because May came to, choking and puking out water within the first 20. Brendan grabbed her so she didn't fall as she looked around, heaving for oxygen. The battlefield was half-illuminated by now with moonlight, and although the protective force had established a solid offence, the airborne trainers pushing the Groudon within firing range of the trainers on the significant remaining stub of Sootopolis, the Groudon didn't look like it was tiring.

/

"Where's Etz," May managed to say, heart fluttering, no capacity to notice anything more than her pokemon's absence.

"On that seaweed there," Brendan gestured. May realized it was Brendan. He wasn't wearing his hat, although she didn't really know why she found him unfamiliar in that moment. "You stay out of the ocean," he told her, and as his swellow hovered close, he clambered on and flew away to the Groudon.

May sat there, focused on Etz only. She called to it and it crawled and leapt on the heaps of seaweed-entangled debris until it reached the end and had to paddle up to her. She recalled it and fished out another pokeball from her bag closeby. She didn't care how it had gotten there. Her hands were shaking.

Tropius could fly, and it was he who she chose. His weight however started to make the foundation that supported them collapse and May scrambled onto his leathery hide, grabbing his thin lithe neck tightly.

"Fly!" she yelled and her pokemon whirled its four wide, palm-leaf wings, but it needed more momentum to get off the ground-

They were flying, May thought as they shot up. But then she realized there was still ground under them. And then she realized the Kyogre had come up from the depths, causing great jets to shoot up out of the ocean as it commanded the waves to collect in an awesome water spout attack that seemed as if it would dry up all of the Sea of Hoenn. May and Tropius rose higher, the water blasting them to the height of the Groudon's head as lightning tore from the clouds that again split with thunder.

The Kyogre turned the monstrous limb of water and it funnelled up, heaving over the Groudon.

/

"Now!" Syder's voice came tinny in Maxie's ear as the Groudon gave a terrible grating call of pain, knocked flat by the huge displacement of oceanwater. The Kyogre's attack seemed like a mobile watery root as it rejoined the ocean and the Groudon collapsed with a tidal splash. The ocean didn't know which way to go and so proceeded to go every which way at high velocities, up and down and out and swirling back in.

Maxie, at a safe distance, held the red stone between his hands and felt it suddenly become warm.

He discharged energy through his palms into the stone as the world seemed quiet for a moment, nothing relevant but the power he held.

The stone gave out all its energy to try and sustain the Groudon. But Maxie was an easier feed. The force of the raw power knocked Maxie back and Crobat flapped under him, managing to keep the Magma leader seated.

There was nothing to explain it. It was tunnelling through him; he absorbed it, so concentrated and so quickly it was unimaginable.

And then in a dead and bloody snuffing, the light in the stone closed to darkness and the ocean heaved to cover the Groudon. It would sink like a stone. At the lightless depths of the ocean's floor, the fire/ground type would have no way of recuperating, regaining energy from its surroundings.

Maxie dropped the gem into the waves. It was worthless to him now.

/

No one escaped the Kyogre's massive attack. The mad ocean knocked the airborne force out of the sky and surged against the small outposts on land.

/

Steven found himself still on Skarmory somehow. Still flying somehow, his inner ear swirling. The Kyogre's sleek back rose just above the waters.

Steven felt empty of everything but the will to go on. Which was perhaps a good thing, but otherwise a terrible thing that would get everyone killed. His would-be rescue group was in shambles as the Kyogre summoned pillars of water funnels, the clouds shutting out the moonlight again. The storm picked up.

"We can't do this," Steven sighed to himself. Not without another superpower to knock out the Kyogre like it had the Groudon.

/

Wherever they stood, the other trainers backed as far away from the Kyogre's storm-whipping project they could. The air force circled at a distance. The odds stood against them. Who knew how much damage exactly their combined efforts had done to the Groudon? It could've been close to nothing, it could be that the Kyogre was truly responsible.

On the highest stub, Brawly and Glacia and Wattson and a couple Magmas switched out their pokemon or just stood in dumbfounded exhaustion at the Kyogre's torrential displays. The twisters whirled outwards. Shelley and Flannery were clinging to their tilted platform. May was trying to think and shivering, Tropius dipping and flapping heavily through the gale.

Winona and her swellow briefly alighted on a heap of smashed Mercado Market stalls so she could give it a hyper potion. As she balanced on the heaving waters, Wallace and Milotic appeared at her side. He wordlessly handed her a long harpoon gun as she regained altitude.

As swellow avoided the water twisters Winona slid the tool through her hands. It was loaded with dioxin. She looked back down at her brother. He glanced at her and had to move fast as the ocean's surfaced twisted upwards below him.

...

Meanwhile, a certain green wyvern-like pokemon was quite annoyed that it couldn't take its daily 23.5-hour naps with all the shaking and quaking going on. It also didn't like the heavy rains that were slowy flooding its roosting space. It had gone out for a few quick excursions to see what could be the matter, but it figured the two little beasts splashing around in the ocean would sort themselves out soon enough. However the pokemon's last few sleeps had been rudely interrupted by the aforementioned circumstances and above all of that a whole bunch of bothersome wild pokemon were trying to crowd into its personal cavern. As if it were any drier than their space below! When a crew of squealing altaria got in, that was it. How dare lesser creatures invade the roost of the ruler of the skies!

Rayquaza blasted them all to pitiful heals of fluff with a casual dragon claw flicked off its pinky claw and shot out of the skylight into the boiling deluge. Those puny little land and sea goofs would pay.

...

Steven debated calling a retreat as the cycling twisters forced him further away from Kyogre at the eye of the storm. And then Winona zoomed right past him, and she had a harpoon gun in her hand and she was heading towards the Kyogre.

What did she think she was doing?! Steven had expressly said, no harming the legendaries in any way other than pokemon attacks-to use other methods was going against the order of things, and Devon could use the legendaries for research if they were untainted, and the Mainland would definitely have things to say-

Steven commanded Skarmory over to the outcroppings where everyone else was stationed, spray blasting them in the face. They were unable to attack as the Kyogre was shielding itself.

"Go! Retreat!" Steven yelled at whoever he could see, weaving through the blasting winds in the dark. "Retreat!" Another airborne trainer passed him but it was too dark to tell who it was. "Winona?!" Steven yelled, but if it had been her, she didn't respond. A flurry of wings followed behind Steven and pokemon attacks lit up the cyclones that were gathering power. Winona was about to head into the electric-beater-like system of twisters. Blue light came from the center of the storm, the cold challenge from within the solace of pillars of water.

"Winona!" Steven yelled. "You'll be killed!" The wind took his words. But a break between two lashing water funnels provided her a space and she flew on-the group following her, pokemon attacks lighting the way.

A sudden blast of wind and rain and a surge as two twisters met and became one knocked most of the airborne company off course.

/

But Winona was in, and May was right behind her on Tropius, spitting solarbeam like a flashlight.

The two swerved and whirled and often against their will; the system of water funnels played with the flyers who dared frolic in their orbits. The wind and rain lashed exposed skin and hurled itself against feathery and leathery flanks.

But they held on and headed in the direction of the glow, whenever a relapse between cyclones allowed them to orientate themselves.

Suddenly they shattered through a final barrage of watery blast, flung by a twister, into a calming blue glow. Rain fell lightly. The Kyogre's back gleamed blue below the ocean's surface.

May breathed again, rubbing Tropius' neck. Tropius was strong if not fast; she had had the least disturbing flight.

Winona looked shaken as her mount fluttered around confusedly before coming to hover dizzily in some state of steadiness.

Tropius did lazy laps in the freaky stillness. May's ears rung. Winona descended slowly.

"Steven and I have enough between us already," she said matter-of-factly as she tucked the weapon under her arm and prepped it with the other.

May felt nervous. Yes, the Kyogre was destroying Hoenn. But to do something so rashly in a matter of minutes.

May's Nav rang. A text from Brendan. Hold on.

/

Brendan had managed to snarl himself in seaweed, but someone pulled him free - a girl - the Magma admin? - and he clung to Swell as his bird fled from the ever increasing cyclones. He hadn't seen Magma or Aqua, but in the confusion he knew it wasn't necessarily because they weren't there.

Something cut through the air. It seemed to halt the spiralling storm for a moment.

It was a blast of wind-like energy, a call inaudible. Brendan pulled Swell around and grabbed his Nav out of his bag. There was something coming.

...

"Hold on," May said.

"Why?" Winona said, poised to strike.

"I don't know, Brendan says so."

"This needs to be stopped now." Winona pulled her tired bird down a little lower. It flapped quickly and tightly to hover over the Kyogre as Winona looked for a break in its armor.

/

The call was audible the next time and a streak of light pinpointed above the towering stormclouds. Brendan let Swell fly where it willed, gripping the bird with his legs and texting with his hands. May, there's something big coming from the sky. Get out of there. Don't let Winona do it.

/

"You have to - Brendan says we should get out," May said.

Winona paid her no heed. She had found a good spot where creased white flesh showed through a joint in the Kyogre's armor.

Get out, came another text from Brendan. May thought she heard something, like a train coming from the far end of a tunnel as you walked obliviously towards it from the other side.

"We should go," she said one last time. But Winona was already injecting the Kyogre. The dioxin spent, Winona tossed the empty harpoon into the water. Immediately the twisters surrounding the cave of ethereal blue sagged.

May didn't wait. "Go!" she urged Tropius, and they flew.

/

Brendan was leaving. The approaching streak was growing in brightness like a meteor. The sound of a train in a tunnel, it was, but purer and more intent. It pounded through him and he knew it was powerful.

In the darkness, other shapes flitted by. The cyclones chased the fleeing trainers, throwing spiteful blasts of wind and rain, but the pokemon felt the approaching danger and put on a burst of speed.

_Get out, May, get out, get out_, Brendan thought, clutching his Nav in one hand. Always hankering about having a plan and here she was not following her rule. Damn you, May, he thought, trying to keep his pounding heart from giving up completely on him.


	53. Masterball

Rayquaza shot through the air with extreme speed. It coiled itself in the air above the Kyogre's smug spot as CEO of Hoenn Hurricanes. Rayquaza briefly felt cheated, realizing the Groudon's defeat, but no matter. Taking out the Kyogre with double power would be just as satisfying.

It charged itself with electricity. The golden lines streamlining its body lit up. And it shot straight down through the clouds.

/

Everything was over for the Kyogre. It fought the poison coursing through it, but Rayquaza hit home, a living thunderbolt traveling as fast as the pyroclastic flows of Mt Chimney. The Kyogre moaned quietly of defeat into the ocean waters as it was electrocuted with super-effective energy. The dioxin took command of it.

The Kyogre sank. The huge broiling hurricanes that had begun to eat away at Hoenn's coast sucked themselves into vapour and rejoined the clouds.

Lightning crackled out in a sphere of energy as Rayquaza U-turned and shot back up. The Kyogre's calm prison was broken and as the water fell back to the ocean the thunderbolts crackled through it, lighting up the heaving swells. The smaller twisters exploded and dispersed, sending the lightning arcing out further.

"10 out of 10! that was a great attack," Rayquaza adjudicated itself, but it came out as more of a fearsome roar that frightened the wits out of anyone who was still listening. The thunderclouds began to lighten and lift as Rayquaza noticed the girl trainer who had come in to scream at him not too long ago floundering in the water, a useless tropius unable to help her mount again.

_Serves her right! _Rayquaza thought. But he sure would like to know what she'd been doing in his roost in the first place. He zoomed over and plucked up the tropius in a claw, coiling in midair. The frightened pokemon started honking and wouldn't answer Rayquaza's sensible questions about the girl. He shook it, annoyed.

/

Steven came back for May and was relieved to find her floundering in the ocean, unable to mount her tropius. No sooner had he gotten within range than the huge green wyvern shot out of the sky - there was no other way to say how it flew than shot - and grabbed the tropius. Skarmory hesitated, flapping its wings. Steven gaped. Now, he'd never registered this one with the Mainland. Or Devon. It was a wild pokemon. It wasn't under protection. He nearly couldn't help himself.

Steven had most treasured possession in his pocket; he always carried it with him, just in case. His masterball. Devon only made one a year. That's all they were allowed to make. This one, he'd had it for 6 years.

But he closed his eyes and thought better of it. He had excuses to capture it, but no reason. He flew under Rayquaza's shadow - yes, there was a shadow now as dawn light slid above the horizon - and tried to help May up out of the water. But she refused his hand, instead digging in her green bag. Her hair was a mess and she looked wildly out of order.

"I'm getting my tropius back," she yelled up at Steven, "I lost Peli and I'm not losing another!"

...

As the storm sighingly released its deathgrip on Hoenn, the straggling company flew or surfed away for Evergrande.

Brendan wasn't there.

He had been circling closer to the coast when Rayquaza dove in and he had felt the surge of energy leaving the Kyogre and fleeing to a point in the night. He followed that instinct as the rain dropped off to a patter and found Maxie, hovering on his crobat.

Brendan saw red. Here was the guy he needed to take down.

/

"Maxie," Brendan yelled. Swell felt him and burst upwards with a dash of blue energy at its beak, hitting the crobat in the underbelly and then spinning away.

The Magma leader righted his bat and scrutinized Brendan as the clouds parted and dissipated. The bridge of the kid's nose was swollen and scabbing from where Brodie had punched him.

Brendan, yelling, came in again with another fly attack. Crobat flapped aside but Swell feinted too.

As the fly attack impacted Crobat, Maxie turned in his seat and released a swirling blast of flaming energy that hit Swell.

With the energy from the Groudon and Kyogre in him, the attack was overpowered, and Swell faltered, plummeting and Brendan looked up, speechless.

Maxie turned Crobat and flapped off toward the coast where Courtney had headed already. He laughed. He had succeeded. It had been easy. Well, that was the first step taken-

Something blasted into his back and threw him forwards off crobat. It burned through him as he flailed to come facing downward as he fell, his bat catching him just before he hit the waves.

"Yaaaah!" came Brendan's shout as Swell came in fast pursuit of the bat. Maxie turned, puzzled that a flying type could know a fire attack, but Brendan provided him with an answer, leaning forward on his swellow and summoning a flamethrower attack out at Maxie. The fiery energy again blasted into his back, burning with the hit, and crobat put on speed, twisting and turning to try and evade the boy who was attacking its rider.

Maxie felt shock, something he wasn't used to.

That kid - that kid - it was not possible that Brendan, a mere child, had figured out the pokerus possibilities and successfully undergone a similar procedure to contract it - not possible-

Maxie shook it off, tugged crobat out of the way of another flamethrower from the kid. His bird was fast, it was catching up. I suppose this is all because I killed your precious swampert.

Maxie collected energy and shot a rolling ring of fire out backwards. Not at Brendan, but at his pokemon, which took the hit and slowed.

The Magma leader urged his bat onwards.

/

Brendan knew Swell was - had been - giving all it had got when the fire blast took it out and it folded its wings, diving down with a helpless cry.

"NOO!" Brendan cried as the wind tore away his words and then they hit the water, going under. Brendan kicked back up to the surface. Able to breathe, Brendan dug Swell's pokeball out of his pocket and recalled the fainted bird.

He treaded water, panting furiously after the receding figure of Maxie and Crobat.

So there were others like him. At least one. Preferably, only that one.

"I will find you," Brendan muttered, legs going like an eggbeater, arms cupped and stoking in and out. "You damn well can't get out of killing Swampert." _And ... and knifing my dad,_ he added in his mind as he gulped.

...

Shelley was surfing away on Crawdaunt, taking her time as the storm lessened to gaze after Rayquaza as it rose back up and then shot back down towards someone in the water.

Maxie hadn't caught her the Groudon. Maxie hadn't caught her the Kyogre. She hadn't really expected him to either, and so had taken her own measures.

She hadn't found much snooping around in his bedroom in the middle of the night, key stolen, him slumbering in her quarters. She'd found a picture of a woman with red hair - maybe he had a thing for gingers - with an address not of Hoenn on the back, but that had no significance to her. It was an old picture.

What she had found was a masterball.

She would've caught the Kyogre. She'd planned to go in with Winona, but the gale had knocked her aside and she hadn't succeeded. But this pokemon with the power to take out the Kyogre? Even better. She could picture the look on her sister's face when they battled and she sent out the magnificent wyrm creature.

Shelley surfed in close, took the masterball out and flung it up at the green wyvern-like pokemon.

The huge coils and fearsome streamlined maw transducted inside the masterball as Tropius fell with a bray into the ocean.

/

_What is this_, Rayquaza thought to himself. _I am suspended in a state of particle energy_. At first he didn't much like it, but then he figured there were no distractions or feuding little beasties to bother him. He happily went to sleep.

/

May lunged forward through the waves with a couple frantic strokes, reaching Tropius' pokeball out and recalling it. Safe and sound.

Steven saw the Magma girl who was surfing on a crawdaunt, desperate to reach the bobbing masterball. He almost dove into the water for it, but May was stuck too...She could tread water a little longer. Steven urged Skarmory low and the bird sent steely blasts of energy sweeping off its wings. The attack hit the crawdaunt.

"Hydro pump!" Shelley yelled shrilly. The rain was almost nonexistent and the ceiling of thunderclouds had lifted to let the dawn light cradle the aftermath of Sootopolis' debris floating in the water. The crawdaunt turned and blasted Skarmory with an energy-infused funnel of water as the bird dove in for another attack, but that created waves which sent the masterball just out of Shelley's grasp.

May had started front-crawling furiously towards the elusive capsule as well.

Steven pulled Skarmory around. The ride was uncomfortable as he'd had no time to put the steel bird's harness on.

As Crawdaunt gave its trainer a boost, Shelley's hand closed around the masterball. Crawdaunt took another steel wing attack just as Shelley was trying to remount it, but she grabbed onto one of its claws as it started jetting east.

"What are you doing?!" Steven yelled furiously, tailing the girl with red hair - her face reminded him of Flannery, but he didn't know who she was, wearing yellow pants, a black shirt and a blue jacket. She was with Magma though, by her red logo'd bandana. Skarmory crowed and unleashed a succession of steel wing attacks that hit their mark as Shelley clambered on to her pokemon's back.

May had grabbed the Crawdaunt's stuccoed tail and hung on as it plowed through the waves, keeping her eyes squinted as shut as she could, water shredding into her face. The Crawdaunt couldn't fend off an attacker, carry its trainer and tow a hitchhiker all at once; it began to slow and Skarmory pounced on it, dragging it half out of the water. Shelley splashed off and May caught the masterball as Shelley lost her grip on it. Panicked, May switched to backstroke and began whirling away as Steven held his bird, holding the Crawdaunt, just out of Shelley's reach.

/

Shelley panted and splashed about; she'd never been a strong swimmer.

The man with near white hair on top of the bird told her to get away as Crawdaunt was released with a plop back into the ocean. Shelley was furious. She swore at Hoenn's Champion and released her sharpedo which immediately crunched Skarmory with dark energy.

Steven yanked Skarmory away, letting the ginger flee along with her two pokemon. He impressed her familiar face in his mind's eye. She looked a lot like Flannery. He would ask her.

"Need a ride?" he called down to May, exhausted, his body still pumping enough adrenaline through him, enough to keep him going and keep him from thinking too much. The young trainer paused her frantic strokes and Steven dipped down so Skarmory's talons clipped the waves, and he hauled her up on the steel/flying type. Skarmory wasn't a fast flier to begin with, and certainly not with two passengers, but it was strong and flapped slowly towards Evergrande in the pale dawn light. The last streaks of rain fell into the ocean. May's hands clasped around Steven on Skarmory's narrow back. The Champion focused on the League, a dark blur ahead. He felt her grip loosen a few minutes later and he took her hands in his as he held onto the three hard ridges at the base of Skarmory's ostrich-length neck. They were cold. He was cold.

They flew on in silence, and it was unnerving after the long hours of crashing and roaring and blasting and thundering. It seemed as if the stillness might suddenly rip all reality away, and Steven held tight to May's hands to keep her secure. His thumb stroked the masterball in her one hand. He didn't think, at all, about anything.

Peace.

* * *

**AN: Lol this is going to be like 130K words. Anyways, yeah I think it's tensaishipping but NO THIS IS NOT THAT Steven is just a nice guy.**

**Ok. Well I didn't update right away because I think these are the most action-packed chapters. I didn't want anyone to miss them. So as always review and let me know how the characters are, comments, criticism, plot notes, anything! **


	54. Return to the League

Phoebe and Sidney were waiting anxiously at the quiet League.

Sidney had flown back to the League, seeing the Sootopolians were eager to get themselves to Fortree. Besides, it was only Phoebe at the League, alone. He had found her with flushed skin, complaining of cramps in her legs, but not sweating - heatstroke. She took an icy shower and recovered enough to help Sidney reorganize the unused emergency supplies from Sootopolis' stay. There wasn't much left but beds and some first aid. There certainly wasn't much food and Sidney, along with the remaining medic, had spent most of the night scrubbing scales off Drake's stash of frozen fillet of barboach. All the Elite four made fun of Drake's epicurean tastes for seafood, but it was no joke how useful it would be now. Phoebe was a decent cook and she dug some herbs out and cooked the fish with some nomel juice.

"This is the last," Sidney said at about 3:30 a.m., coming to the small but well-equipped kitchen at the back loaded with raw meat. "Smells totally delicious," he complimented Phoebe as the native girl flipped and seasoned.

"Thanks," she said. There was a frown on her face, on top of the exhaustion tugging her features down. Sidney put the raw fish in a metal bowl and came over to stand by her and her sizzling pan.

"Why the frown?" he asked her, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"They could all die," she blurted. Even from inside the thunder and rain could be heard. "They're going right into the middle of the storm. How could they not all die?! I can't believe I didn't go. If the League's going to go down, we should go together."

"Steven's better than that," Sidney said. "Way better. They'll come back."

"And we'll be stuck with all this fish," Phoebe said, tears crawling down her cheeks as she put the finished pan into a paper-lined dish and put that in the oven to keep warm.

"You shush," Sidney told her. Phoebe looked at him and he didn't move, open. She burst into tears and clung to him.

A minute later her sobs calmed.

"Sidney.." she trailed, looking up at him and his mohawk that was falling over his face, "Do you like me?"

"What? Like - like, like?"

Phoebe shrugged sadly. "I thought now was as good a time as any to ask."

"Well ... Yeah," he said. "How about you? You, me?"

"Yes," she said with a Phoebe-once-again smile.

"Fry some more fish," Sidney said, grabbing the bowl and throwing a raw barboach at her. Squeaking, she caught it.

"We're official and the first thing you do is throw a fish at me?!" she said in false outrage, throwing the fish in the pan.

Still, things sobered up as the long minutes drew on. Eventually the fish was fried. The two Elites went out to the foyer and sat by one of the windows to watch for the dawn and whatever came with it.

...

Brendan's leg was bleeding. He had noticed it a few minutes ago. Best he could figure, he'd scraped it on the swirling underwater debris of housing supports while rescuing May. Only now did it start to throb shooting pains up his leg. He had gotten a revive tablet down Swell's throat somehow and taken off, struggling out of the heavy waters.

Brendan flew in the direction of Hoenn's coast. There was dark smoke, like ash, spreading through the air to the north. He gritted his teeth as the long gash slicing from the back of his thigh to the side of his calf streamed blood like a jet trail behind Swell.

He would be smarter this time. He'd go to Mauville's hospital and see Dad and see what Mom could do about his leg. Then he'd call May and get the League on his side and they would go and take Magma down. Some notion of training himself lingered in the back of his mind. He didn't really care how Maxie had been able to use pokemon attacks, though it probably had to do with Swampert. Brendan didn't really care how it had happened to him. But it was a skill he could use.

You brave, brave bird, Brendan thought to Swell, clinging to the long plumes of his bird's headcrest tighter than he needed to, distracting himself from the pain in his leg. He knew Swell was devoted to him. He could feel it. He had to be careful and not push the bird till it broke.

As they reached the coastline some time later, Brendan looked down upon route 123 they were following to get to Mauville. It was clear that one of the cyclones had hit; the ground was torn and trees lay strewn around, from this height looking like scattered toothpicks. The Eastern inlet had extended subsidiary streams out over the land.

Brendan leaned on Swell as they kept dipping and soaring on. He could see the skyscrapers of Mauville by now. He could see some of them were not so close the sky anymore.

He hung on and hoped.

...

The Pokemon League had been built solidly. It was a fairly utilitarian building, orange set with darker orange squares, an overhang supported by dark purple pillars over the entrance. The overhang had fallen, the pillars cracked and lying on their rotund sides, but the building itself was intact.

Roxanne and Wattson supported each other as they arrived, finally. Finally. They were both soaked and the dawn's young light barely gave light to the brick path they trod on.

The two gym leaders passed the fallen Hoenn coat-of-arms deco that had graced the overhang, red and blue, a slash of green with an orange design reminiscent of a volcano.

As they entered, Phoebe and Sidney rushed to their sides and sat them down and asked them question after question.

Roxanne's arms were scraped and she couldn't speak, she was so cold. Wattson was in better condition and tried to help the other two make the small rock gym leader feel comfortable, but a minute later Winona entered. She refused Sidney's offers of help, instead going behind the medic counter to heal her pokemon. She had been literally shocked, too close to the Kyogre when Rayquaza had attacked. The empty harpoon had stayed stuck in her grip for a panicked couple minutes as lightning-laced spray had surged out and around her and her swellow had been electrocuted. It was gone now.

Her pelipper had saved her. Before crashing into the waves pumped with charge, she had managed to release her pelipper and it used protect, keeping the blue shield up until the thunderbolt attack ran out of current.

However, she had still received an ugly burn that ran the length of her arm. It had burnt her jacket sleeve off and the sleeve under. She applied a cooling gel.

The three Magmas entered next. One of them had a broken arm. Phoebe and Sidney couldn't do much for him and the medic put it in a makeshift sling.

They all had mild hypothermia, shivering and confused, but not in mortal danger. They were given blankets and coffee, and out came the fish.

Drake marched in next, his second flygon drooping at his side. He started right for his fish and gobbled a good few full barboach down. The tough sailor was battered and bruised, but he had enough strength to stomp back to his room and take a long swig of brandy.

Everyone quietly waited in suspense. They were silent but everyone knew they were waiting for Steven, even the Magma grunts. Nav communications weren't working.

Wallace came in, Milotic's pokeball clenched in his hand, Flannery leaning on him. He had picked her up from where she had lain, spent, pinned against a chunk of rock from the volcano and a length of pipe sticking out of it.

Flannery was cold and pale in the face, though her fingers were an ugly blue. She moved stiffly although she appeared alert, and something around her shoulders was broken. She screamed as Phoebe tried to help her to a seat and clutched at where the pain came from. Sidney and the medic and Wattson rushed to her.

Wallace had been in the unforgivingly cold water, helping fish people out and carry them, for more than 2 hours. His fingers were blue too and swollen. He sat by the sales counter, stiffly and slowly. Phoebe came over and wrapped him in blankets and put a coffee in his hands; she tried to get the attention of Sidney, Wattson and the medic but they were trying to transport Flannery back to Phoebe's room for a warm dousing.

She enlisted the two relatively unharmed Magmas who were sticking bandages on various cuts and scrapes while stuffing fried fish in their mouths. She led the way back as the two Magmas had to practically carry Wallace. They got to Steven's back room and Phoebe only hesitated a bit before telling the Magmas to put him in Steven's shower. She felt the gym leader's pulse as the Magmas scurried back out to the food. It was way too slow. She turned the shower on and let it rain on him.

A clamour from the foyer called her out and she left the former gym leader to defrost for a moment.

Steven had entered the League at last, supporting May, his exhausted Skarmory rifling its wings metallically as it tucked its head under its long pinion feathers and perched on the spot.

Phoebe was the only one to attend him, but he waved her off, saying he had suffered not much more than a few bruises. May was given the blankets and coffee treatment. Phoebe noticed the masterball in the trainer's hand as she unbent the cold fingers and prized it out. She was about to ask Steven, but the Champion took it and put it in his pocket with a silencing nod.

"Oh, I left Wallace in your shower, he's got hypothermia," Phoebe told the Champion. "You should take a blanket or a coffee."

Steven shook his head, not even attempting to say something coherent. He nodded weakly at the survivors dotting the room and stumbled back to his quarters.

Wallace was leaning on the wall in the shower as water poured over him, his eyes closed, hair streaming straight as a plumb line down his face, white shirt translucently hanging off him.

Steven left him in there. He stripped off his jacket and shirt and undershirt and jerked off his shoes and wrapped himself in the big quilt on his bed that Wallace had borrowed recently. He felt warm. It reminded him of when his mom would make him dry off, on those endless days on the beach when he'd been 5 or 6. She would tempt him with an iced treat and smother him with his favorite beldum towel, and he never wanted to stop playing, but he'd always loved the cocoon-like warmth of a towel after a cold swim.

Quite without warning, as he was beginning to feel more steady and his mind was trying to forge its way back into conscious thought, the room faded and he blacked out.

...

When Maxie got back to New Mauville, he found what he'd suspected - the underground power plant had been shaken as torn by the quake. He stepped into the hallway in ankle-deep water. Dr Syder was heading to just outside of Oldale; Maxie would join him there soon. The Magma leader was in a bad mood.

The unanswerable question kept circling in his mind. How in the regions did that child come to possess the pokerus?

And how close was he to the League? Maxie had thought better of being electrocuted and poured energy down his body so a swirling fire blast hissed up clouds of steam around where he walked. Would keep his feet dry too.

If the trainer reveals his abilities to the League, who knows what will happen. Maxie doubted that the League would come after him and Magma even with the kid shooting fire out his hands. Hoenn was crippled and it needed attention. But there was no uncertainty that the kid would come after Maxie. Something would have to be done about the kid, before Magma made their move and gave the League a reason to come after them.

Maxie made it to the lab and grabbed the bag of pokeballs that had been left behind. Courtney was waiting outside. He didn't want her to get electrocuted; she'd done some good work for Magma's public relations. He tried to turn on the computer by hooking it to his Nav and was satisfied when the screen remained dark. Probably every electric appliance in New Mauville had been blown out. That followed Mauville itself as well.

Maxie paused in front of the hall to his room, and then headed to his quarters.

He left the lights off and grabbed a change of clothes and took his masterball -

His masterball wasn't in the drawer.

He searched quickly and systematically through his few personal things. It wasn't there; probably the fault of one of the grunts. Someone was going to get it, he thought mutteringly as he took the photo out of his top drawer.

He looked at it for longer than he'd resolved to, at the smiling, beautiful face who had left him 17 years ago.

Had it been that long? Ariana, dear Ariana... If there was ever a bad choice he'd made, she was it. Meeting her or leaving her, he couldn't decide. In his youth he'd thought it was she who'd left, but now he saw it was really all him. He'd forced her to leave.

He stuffed the photo deep in the pocket of his slim slacks and headed back out.

...


	55. Approaching Dawn

A hurricane had battered Mauville.

Brendan alighted in the city and went to the Pokemon center, but there was no power and no one was there.

On the streets, broken glass and steel littered the pavement, and some avenues swirled with a foot or more of water. Roofs were caved in and blown off the neat rows of houses; skyscrapers had toppled, blocking whole streets; the traffic lights had collapsed and lay bent and stiff, pinned under torn infrastructure or sticking out of the cloudy floodwater.

The worst thing was that it was quiet. The surface of the stormwater in the streets was still. Brendan passed a couple still bodies that had been crushed under a truck full of empty potion cases that had come spilling out its back.

He made his way around the debris. A lonely whismur hopped and sniffled around the iron tables and chairs from an open-air coffee shop that had been scattered across the pavement.

A bolt of pain strobed down Brendan's leg and he stumbled, clutching it. There was a Finish Line store to his right, windows blown out. He limped in, found a runner's ace bandage and wrapped all of it around his wound. Blood soaked the fabric promptly.

Brendan left the whismur alone. He saw some faces looking out fearfully from a basement window and a hesitant crew of people making their stunned way around their destroyed city a street adjacent. Not long till scavengers hit the unprotected stores.

Releasing Swell, he climbed gingerly on the bird. He felt it was about half HP without needing his status clip, able to sense the energy running through it. He clenched his teeth till his jaw hurt as he asked his bird to fly him to the hospital, however much he burned to pursue Maxie.

If the medical centre even remained standing.

...

The Mainland building crew and dignitaries were being transported in three helicopters. The flight from the Mainland to Hoenn was a good 5 hours. You didn't need to be geographically close to suck money out of a province.

The pilots prepared for a tall storm their equipment sensed brewing in the distance and that they could eventually see with the naked eye, towering over Hoenn, but as they drew near it dissipated quickly, leaving instead a thick bank of what seemed like ash or soot hovering over the western half of the region.

They were going in for emergency housing of those displaced by inclement weather. But that storm ... seemed pretty drastic.

...

The hospital looked to be in good condition. The bikes in front of it had been scattered and some of the curved stone shingles had clattered to the ground below, but nothing looked too serious. Brendan entered at around 5:00 a.m. There was no power. There was nobody at the reception desk, but as Brendan went up the stairs to the next level there were doctors and nurses busying about in the dim hallway. Expressions were hard or sad and through open doors monitors and pumps lay silent as did patients on their beds.

Brendan found himself running, dashing in a stilted rhythm to the ICU. His leg hurt so bad. He looked from one room to the other and finally saw his dad and ran in.

Norman was pale, propped into a sitting position. Mrs Mayer was at his side, a layer of gauze between his neck wound and her hand applying steady pressure.

"Mom! Dad!" Brendan burst out, running over and kneeling by his dad. He saw the paths of dried tears on Mrs Mayer's face.

"Brendan!" Mrs Mayer said, moving to hug him but unable to while staunching the bleeding as much as she could.

Blood escaped around her white-knuckled fist.

"How... how bad," Brendan said, gulping, feeling fluttering in his stomach.

"It's been bleeding steadily. It won't clot up. We can't stitch it, it's too deep. He needs a blood transfusion, but nothing's working, the power's out," Mrs Mayer said, her voice breaking. "They already went to see . . . It's flooded."

Norman looked at Brendan.

"Where did you go," he said, sounding weak.

Brendan felt even more terrible than if his dad had had the energy to be angry at him.

"The Elite Four and gym leaders went to fight the Groudon and Kyogre," he said, but that was as far as he got.

"You're a mess, where's your hat - You're bleeding!" Mrs Mayer exclaimed. Brendan looked at his leg.

"Yeah, it's just -"

"Sancha!" Mrs Mayer yelled to the hallway. "Sancha! I need your help!"

Dr Sharon came hurrying in.

"Sancha's with Billy on the fourth floor, what do you need?"

Mrs Mayer motioned to Brendan's leg. The blood was smeared across his skin from kneeling on the floor.

"Come with me," Dr Sharon said, but Brendan stood and backed around the side of the bed.

"No, I gotta stay here-"

"Go and get it bandaged, son," Norman said, sounding awfully hoarse.

Brendan followed Dr Sharon out, glancing back at his dad several times, his heart beating sickeningly inside him.

...

Eternity stretched before Brendan as Dr Sharon cleaned the wound, the bleeding of which had thankfully slowed, and prepared to stitch it up. The natural, cloudy ointment she used to disinfect the gash burned. He wanted to stay by his dad, but he had to go to New Mauville and see if he couldn't get past the flooding. He would. Probably just a bunch of doctors with weak little pokemon had gone to see and hadn't even tried-

"How did you get this?" Dr Sharon was asking. "It's quite nasty!"

It was kind of awkward in the dim room filled with cupboards of gauze and tape. The red curtains had been thrown wide open but the dawn light was still weak.

"Underwater, I don't know, I noticed it later," Brendan said vacantly.

"You were outside and underwater?!"

Brendan gave the doctor a shortened version of the long struggle between the legendaries and the skilled trainers, leaving out the stuff about Maxie and rescuing May.

"You actually went and joined the Champion of Hoenn? He let you?" Dr Sharon exclaimed as she stitched away with the thin blue thread. Brendan bit his lip.

"May invited me, you know May... Professor Birch's daughter."

"Oh yes, her - she was with the Champion?"

Brendan had to elaborate a little more, but put a stop to Dr Sharon's questions with a complaint of the wound hurting a lot, which it did.

It was obvious the news was quite enthralling to the doctor.

Eventually she finished and stood. "Now, Brendan, you can't do any dashing about or-"

Brendan jumped up, hiking his bag up on his shoulder, and dashed out of the room.

"WAIT!" Dr Sharon yelled after her patient. She ran after him, but he was fast, disappearing down the stairs before she could heave open the door swinging closed. "Miranda! Your son!"

But Mrs Mayer couldn't leave her post and only scream frantically at her son as he rushed past.

...

At the Pokemon League, everyone was slowly warming up. It was clear that the one Magma and Flannery and probably Roxanne as well needed a hospital, but the Nav communication system wasn't working and Phoebe couldn't find out if the hospitals closest were up and running or not.

She sat by Flannery, who had passed out. Now everyone was waiting for Steven to get up or come out. No one made the move to go to the Champion's back room.

May sat by Roxanne, who had been given a warm shower and was confused about where she was, on Phoebe's bed. Roxanne talked about things quite irrelevant to anything and May just mmm-hmmmed a lot. She had dried off and eaten a piece of fish. Besides being tired and having bruises over her ribcage she was fine.

As time dragged on hope of Brawly or Glacia or Brendan coming back grew slimmer. There was no sign of Courtney, either. Winona had taken off for Fortree in a matter of minutes but Wattson stayed to look after the injured parties, although he would probably rather have gone home, May thought. Phoebe popped in to check on her and mention someone was going to have to do the long fly to Mauville if Steven didn't come out and set up a plan soon.

There hadn't really been any other way to do what they had managed at this cost. Except if Steven hadn't accepted Magma's help and instead interrogated them about why they had been in the Cave. May realized she fully believed Brendan's hunches. Why else would he have come to help out? Thrill-seeking? No, he had mentioned before, before they came to Sootopolis together, how he thought Magma had ulterior motives ... And now Courtney was nowhere to be found and by Mewtwo, Magma's leader hadn't even shown up! Maybe the Champion had done the best he could with his knowledge. But he should have done more research. _Courtney, the liar_. 'We only awoke the Groudon to stop the Kyogre!' _Yeah, right. You've got something up your sleeve._

Brendan permeated her thoughts. He had probably seen the great wyvern bolting through the clouds and so had warned her. May had turned tail as per his advice and left the Kyogre's calm before Winona had. Still, she had minor burns on her calves from the arcs of electricity that had charged the air and water.

She remembered falling off the high peak of Sootopolis. She remembered coming to and spitting out water. She remembered moonlight and Brendan looking concerned over her as her lungs spasmed to expel oceanwater.

Where was he? She staved off guilt with all her might. He couldn't have been lost. He was too lucky for that.

...

Brendan could feel Swell's wingbeats grow heavy as they flew through the sky, a lightening blue that was tinted gray by the spreading ash from Mt Chimney, even this distance from Fallarbor.

His fists were white. Every swallow was hard in his throat and he told Swell, faster, faster, towards New Mauville.

Landing at the familiar inlet, he recalled Swell. The door had been forced open by the previous investigation crew; as he walked into the darkness the tiled floor was merely damp. Magma had obviously evacuated by now. Nonetheless, foreboding gripped him.

He had a good idea of where the really bright room with the generator routers were and he made his way there. Most of the water had drained but he didn't have time to figure out how to get over some of the wider puddles and ran through them recklessly, often feeling a jolt go up his body.

He reached the room with the generators. The door was closed. Without thinking he unleashed flamethrower, burning the metal with fire, pouring more and more energy into it until there was a dripping gap for him to walk through. He did. Attacking so didn't tire him.

The generator routers slept, hulking machines with all their 'on' switches blown to 'off'. Brendan flicked them all on frantically. His leg throbbed and roared his nerves into fright but he ignored it.

Nothing happened. Desperation made his movements seem ten times as slow as they actually were. It needed a boost.

The image of the wyvern pokemon came to his mind, bolting down through the sky, supercharged with lightning, a fatal electric arrow-

Brendan yelled as energy circuited through him, arcing out his fingers and curving, buzzing into the routers. The room lit up. It scared him for a moment and then he poured his focus into it, summoning more strobes. The lightning flickered and bent and suddenly the routers all powered up, and with them, the generators buried below. Brendan stopped the attack. The output of energy zapped off and he stumbled for a moment, expecting a return of energy from a pokemon, but of course he hadn't attacked one.

A monstrous hum filled the room. Brendan stood there for a moment, breathing deeply.

And then the routers shut off with a fizz and loud clicks. Brendan started and dashed over, flicking all the switches back on. The room stayed as dark as before.

Brendan tried to use he thunderbolt attack, but there was no target and no raw surge of first-time power. He tried picturing the ruler-of-the-skies pokemon. He tried imagining that the routers were clumps of magnemite.

"Dammit!" he shouted at the routers, fingers extended and ready to direct electricity. He tried one tactic then the next. He even tried imagining he was an electric pokemon, except what came to mind was the pikachu from the Pokemon Advance TV show and it wasn't exactly an inspiringly, overpowered example of an electric pokemon. Nothing worked.

"Damn you!" he screamed at the silent routers. "My dad is dying!"

The words hung in his ears with stark reality. Fury pricked his cheeks.

"Thunderbolt! _Electricity, damn you_!"

He felt like Swampert, roaring at any target. But she could actually do things while making a racket. Only after so much practice, so much training that the focus required became automatic.

Brendan didn't know why he thought of that rather poignant memory, but he did. He could hardly control his frustration, but the situation demanded it.

He quieted till he could only hear himself breathe. He remembered training young marshtomp. He remembered urging his pokemon to hit the target, hit the target, and marshtomp obeying and missing so many times before she actually took the time to focus while Brendan steamed. He remembered how glorious it was to send level 67 Swampert out roaring, able to hurl muddy water wherever her trainer willed. He remembered how hard it had been to get there. He had never learned his lesson, had he? May saying he was always running off somewhere else ran through his mind. He was fated to struggle through everything, jumping from one thing to the next, end up ... End up with the best battling companion he could think of. And then have her killed and him too useless to do anything.

End up being pokemon Champion. And then find himself with nowhere else and no one else.

End up with a family, and parents, two parents who loved him and each other. And then find his dad dead in a dark hospital room.

May had been right, in more ways than one.

Brendan found his focus and released electricity, arcing out of his arms and body.

The routers hummed once again to life and the generators beneath them.

Brendan stopped his attack, waiting a couple painfully long minutes to make sure they stayed on.

Then he rushed out as quickly as he dared, having Swell fly him over the puddles. The power was back on.

As they flew fast through Mauville there were people dashing everywhere, gathering in the streets, chasing thieves, working around the Pokemon center. The sun was rising now, a sliver showing on the horizon.

...


	56. I Am the Man

Steven lay sprawled on the bed. His mind had given up on him and ran wild in other places. He had been awake for more than 60 hours, minus one, going full blast. The extreme cold and extremely heat and pressure from all sides were suffocating, crushing him. He hadn't been prepared in any way at all to do any of this. He'd done his job with authority - because it was his job to be the authority - but the ceiling swam above him and his limbs tingled, numb and unmoving.

Burnout.

Time passed, not willing the world in one way or the other.

And then there was someone near him. Above him. His name came from somewhere. Long light teal hair brushed his face. His fingers curled in it. It was comforting somehow. His cheek registered delicate touch. Long fingers. Someone was with him, Wallace was with him. Wallace, beautiful Wallace ... Nearly as beautiful as Cyn, in all the wrong ways, he thought from a back corner of his mind that he never had time for in all of his duties.

He could sleep now. He could relax.

...

Wallace emerged from the back and everyone jumped up, thinking it was Steven. May had brought Roxanne out to the foyer on a cot set up with blankets so the medic could be close to everyone. She was concerned for Roxanne's sleepy murmurings.

The tall man had his cerulean hair loose and white dress shirt still damp. He looked gaunt to May. But his eyes were alive, a grayish blue, quite demure compared to his hair.

"Steven's sleeping," Wallace said. "I might say hibernating."

"So we'll have to decide. Without him," Phoebe declared, but not very enthusiastically.

May looked at all the nine trainers in the room. The Magmas were in a group by themselves, uninvolved. Sidney looked ready to go but Flannery didn't look too good and Roxanne was still sleeping.

"We should all get home," Wattson proposed. "And we should get these two girls to Mauville's hospital."

"Nav's working," one of the Magmas exclaimed to his friends.

May got hers out and texted Brendan, the other trainers doing so as well, checking to see how their family was doing.

"The hospital is just up and running now," Wallace said, fingers flying. "We have to get Flannery there." Her one shoulder was black and red and puffy and the medic couldn't do anything for her.

"I'll go with you," May said. It would get her closer to Littleroot, she thought as she texted Prof Birch.

"We should all stick together," Phoebe said. She eyed the Magmas. "Do you know where your leader is?"

"Nah," said one.

"We'll come along," reported the one with the broken arm.

Didn't seem like the grunts cared much about Courtney's welfare. A silence hung in the air. Silence of the trainers, silence from May's Nav. Guilt over Brendan clawed fearlessly at her.

"I'll fly out and look and then come back and stay in case, the rest uh," Sidney cleared his throat, "do come back."

Brawly and Glacia. No one had seen what had happened to them in the confusion. As everyone soberly discussed which of the two parties they would join, May read the text back from Prof Birch. He was terrible at texting and there were spelling and grammar mistakes everywhere.

_Looks like well have 2 fnd a new hous sweetie, im in Mauville at 1027 23rd, thats wher everyone has gine for refugr, hurricsnes_

She swallowed and texted him back saying she was heading to the hospital and that she was fine. _So your lab work is all gone?,_ she added. It probably was and that wasn't good. That was all of his current work. She knew he backed up all his finished projects, so hopefully those could be retrieved from his Nav.

"We should go," Wallace said, putting a hand on Flannery's forehead, which was hot.

Wallace was the only one who chose to surf on his own pokemon. Flannery and Roxanne were tied down on borrowed swellow with May and Wattson flanking them. The three Magmas trailed the little pod on their golbat while Sidney and Phoebe accompanied each other, flying along in the orange and pink sky for an hour until they reached the ugly smashed remnant of Sootopolis and dropped off to search the area.

The others continued on. Despite the worst being over, anxiety still entangled May as the pod of swellow flew through the ashy air. The Magmas behind her talked about Mt Chimney. Looking north, the sky definitely had a black tinge to it. May, riding the borrowed swellow with the harness properly affixed, got out her Nav and checked through the most recent news. It could at least distract her from the unfamiliar rhythm of the swellow's flight, the longing for Peli's slower, steady wingbeats and its wider, shorter back. The few headlines that had been slapped together since the main power had come back on told of Mt Chimney's eruption. May scrolled quickly, but the word "obliterated" caught her eye.

Fallarbor had been buried and burned alive. There were a few pictures. Completely covered in tephra and heavy, hot ash plumes.

Mary's mouth hung open. Most of her graduating class were working there at the mines, maybe 60%. Had been working.

The area wasn't being explored yet because of the dissipating gases. May called the news out to Wattson, both of their birds keeping a steady pace and allowing the riderless transport swellow to follow.

"You don't say?! The volcano finally erupted!" the rather hefty man called jovially back. He laughed in an exclamatory kind of way. Was he capable of sounding anything other than jovial, May wondered.

"Buried all of Fallarbor," May called to him.

"What?"

"All of Fallarbor was buried!"

"Oh-ho! Wahahahah!"

Apparently not.

...

Maxie had doubled back from New Mauville to regroup with Syder. He flew low over the flattened trees and newly formed tributaries of the Eastern inlet, looking for the Berry Masters ltd. building. He spotted it and crobat fluttered down. Maxie dismounted, the ground boggy and wet under his feet, the greenhouses standing like sentries around the berry distribution centre smashed under the fist of the night's storm. The plants inside - a lot of them speciality food - weren't doing well.

From Cozmo, Maxie had learned that Berry Master ltd was to be evacuated first as it was very close to Sootopolis and where the legendaries had been fighting. Syder had been stationed in the hastily-emptied building.

Maxie opened the doors. The ceiling of the warehouse itself had been partially knocked in, wooden and metal reinforcement dangling from the skylight nature had crafted. It wasn't really a warehouse; Berry Master provided licensing and did paperwork and inspections for most of Hoenn's food industry. The man who ran it was rich enough to build all those greenhouses and grow rare berries as well.

"Dr Syder," Maxie called, walking down the carpeted hallway of offices. The doctor opened one of the doors at the end of the hall and stepped out.

"Dr Aur-Maxie, pardon, good to see you safe," he said.

"And you too."

"I was in the basement. It was fairly violent outside," Dr Syder said wryly. "I didn't think I'd last the night. Can't imagine what it was like on scene."

"It was exciting."

There was a pause.

"So, did it work," Dr Syder inquired.

"Yes," grinned Maxie with some weight. "Yes, after all these years."

"Oh, it has been awhile." The men started walking back down the hallway. "Ever since your first year, eh?"

"Since they put me on the Land Resources team."

"That was pretty quick after your internship too."

"Indeed." Maxie stopped and turned to Dr Syder. "Any evidence downstairs?"

"Nothing that would construe anything," Dr Syder said with a wave of dismissal.

"I'm going to ask you something, and you'll have to answer honestly," Maxie said.

"Shoot."

"Do you believe in this project?"

Dr Syder crossed his arms. "Believe? Maxie, it's hard for a man of science to talk about belief."

"Either you believe your theory's right, or you don't," Maxie returned.

Dr Syder looked at the wall behind his employer for a minute.

"Yes, I do. This is revolutionary. In the last 12 hours we've made things happen that hardly been proposed before."

Maxie glanced up to the sagging ceiling. The dawn light streamed through as dust fell. "A good start. Do you believe in how I've proposed to apply these things?"

"Well, Maxie, I'll have to look at the evidence," Syder said, gesturing outwards. "You want an honest answer. How much trouble are we in? What's being done about it? Just because we both believe in a freer land doesn't mean we're the men to do it."

Maxie's lips twitched. "I am the man, Syder," he said. He turned and, spreading back his arms, unleashed a blaze of fiery energy that rippled into real, white hot flames. The force of the sudden heat blasted the weakened roof to bits and pieces that blew outwards and could be heard tinkling and smashing against the greenhouses outside.

Flames licked at the wooden office doors of Berry Master, ltd.

"You've done the best work of your life," Maxie congratulated Syder, a hand on his back as they walked out. He thought of mentioning Brendan, but best to wait until he could find a way of keeping tabs on the boy. He watched his former coworker's Adam's apple bob.

"I ... I see that," Dr Syder said in a stunned tone.

They got outside, where Courtney and Shelley had shown up.

"What was that explosion?" Courtney asked. She had remained unharmed in the battle.

"Just me," Maxie said rather happily. He couldn't help it. He saw Shelley's face was all a-glower and asked the still-damp girl what the matter was.

"Just that I was in the freezing cold ocean for hours," she said.

"You haven't bothered to catch a flying pokemon," Courtney said in a derogatory tone.

"Well-" Shelley was about to retaliate, but Maxie stopped her, addressing Courtney.

"I need to you to check on the trainer," he said.

"Oh. I flew over his town; no one's there. It's destroyed. But... his mother works at Mauville's hospital, I think that's what he said."

"We'll stop there for awhile. Dr Syder, you may help with clean up and such; it will be slow but we need to wait for the Mainland to move first." He looked at the three assembled. "Find a place to stay and I'll come shortly. Courtney, would you lend Dr Syder a golbat?"

The admin nodded. "I have a place. But we'll need the hospital in any case, correct? For ..."

"Don't worry. When the time comes." Maxie cracked a smile. "After all, I could still drop dead at a moment's notice."

"Hardly likely," Dr Syder commented.

"As long as you find out where the boy is as soon as possible, you're free to head off," Maxie said to his admin.

"How about Tabitha?"

"Tabitha ..." Maxie had forgotten about the man. "Yes, see about him as well. Find out what his stay has been like."

Courtney bobbed her head and released two golbat, harnessing both of them as Dr Syder came over and hesitantly climbed on the bats he was accustomed to conducting experiments on.

Maxie saw Courtney glance back at him and Shelley a few times as the two took off northwest. He made a decision. Courtney was going above and beyond the call of duty; she proved herself every day. He couldn't lose her. And he didn't need Shelley.

The redhead faced him, stormy expression among the fallen trees and shattered greenhouses.

Maxie waited for her to explain herself. When she kept her silence and pressed those beautiful lips together in an adult pout, Maxie took off his outer, logo'd jacket and put it in his black, demure duffel bag, along with the rainjacket he'd work earlier. He stripped off his tight scoop-neck tee and folded and put it in his bag too. The morning air was damp and smelled an odd mixture of rain and of something burning. It was chilly against his bare skin.

"You didn't catch the Kyogre or the Groudon," Shelley said finally.

"I never planned to," Maxie said, digging a long-sleeved sweater out of the bag but only slinging it over his arm.

"You did all that for nothing."

"You should join. Then I could tell you why it is the opposite."

The dawn lit them both in orange hues. Maxie searched Shelley's gaze for any sign of yield, but didn't find it.

"I'll take that bandana you were loaned now," he said, stretching his hand out. Shelley ripped it off, letting her red curls loose. It made Maxie a little regretful for a moment. She dropped the Magma wear into his waiting hand and he stuffed it in his pocket.

/

Maxie's eyes were red in the dawn.

"Steven Stone has the green pokemon that ended the battle," Shelley threw at Magma's leader, triumphant at the astonishment that flicked briefly across his face.

"He would never-"

"Better him than me," Shelley retorted. "I guess that's what he thought. Your masterball was just sitting in your drawer. Since you weren't going to use it-"

Maxie lunged in close to her. "You captured the unknown legendary, wearing this-" he shook out the Magma-emblazoned bandana - "-and lost it to Steven?"

"Yes. Maybe if you hadn't been an ass and had been there, I wouldn't have," Shelley stabbed back. What a beast. She processed Maxie's statement. Oh, she saw it now. Well, she didn't care if the Pokemon League saw Magma for what they were. Criminals headed up by a deceptive murderer. He had even fooled her.

"Then I owe Steven an explanation," Maxie said, grabbing Shelley by her throat suddenly. She kicked at him and broke away but he grabbed her back, his other arm in a vice grip around her waist. "Let me go, you son of-" He cut off her shriek.

"He'd be happy to have the rogue Aqua behind bars, seeing as she's proof that Aqua committed a heinous crime against the Mainland by capturing this pokemon... Not to mention the insurance against Aqua she'll provide," Maxie said, twisting her head one way.

"You killed Aqua-" he let her say.

"But Steven doesn't know that."

Maxie pulled her as close as she would get against his warm, bare skin and an insane fear gripped her as his hands slipped under her shirt, against her back. She started to scream but he pressed his lips to hers and silenced her.

"Steven entrusted us with keeping Aqua from misbehaving," he said breathily into her mouth. "You'll complete the task for us. For me."

She struggled and hyperventilated around his teeth as he bit into her lip and his hands curled around her. She couldn't think straight. She lost all sense of objective reality, caged in his embrace.

/

Maxie tired of her a while later. He held an artery closed on her neck and she fainted, collapsing to the wet, natural-debris-littered ground. He pulled the thick sweater on and stroked his hair back.

He texted Steven to apologize for the incident and explain that the culprit was a spying member of Aqua. At least she was a truthful girl. Glancing at unconscious Shelley as he released Salamence, he thought mildly to himself that maybe this was the reason he'd never been able to keep a relationship going.

After loading Shelley onto the blue-scaled dragon's back, he climbed between the wide curved wings and ordered his pokemon into the air. They headed towards Mauville, traveling with the great ups and downs of Salamence's powerful wingbeats.


	57. A Little Trouble

** AN: I update whenever my number of followers equals the visitors for a chapter. I have usually 8-9 chapters written ahead! Keep reading my awesome forever amazing reader people**

**if you last this chapter**

* * *

Brendan got back to the hospital and ran inside. He'd pulled on a navy blue toque. The lights were back on and every doctor and nurse and family member was running everywhere.

He made his way through the noisy halls frantically. _Mom said Dad needs a transfusion which is this way. _

The hospital only had one room equipped for massive transfer protocol from one body to another, and that was the room Maxie had used. Thankfully someone had cleared Swampert's corpse out, but there were still bloodstains on the floor.

In burst Brendan. Two nurses were preparing the equipment. One who he recognized looked up at him and said "You did it!", but Brendan was already running back out with a limp, his leg just as painful as before.

He went to the ICU wing to his dad's room where a few citizens taking refuge along with Dr Sharon were clearing a path to wheel Norman out on the hospital bed. The gym leader wasn't even trying to refuse help, as Brendan knew would be his usual response.

Brendan rushed over.

"Dad, are you ok?" he said, getting in the way as Dr Sharon gave Brendan a look of hopelessness and gratitude.

"Brendan, get out of the way," she told the young trainer as Norman replied weakly, saying,

"I just need some type O to come around..."

Brendan grabbed the headboard and everyone took off, pushing Norman's bed down the crowded hallways.

As soon as they got him into the transfusion room, Mrs Mayer came running with a stranger at her side.

"This is Maria, she's a triathlete, she says she's type O and she's been screened two months ago," Mrs Mayer panted. The tall woman at her side affirmed the statement and sat in the chair one of the nurses indicated as the other nurse rushed to connect Norman's heart rate monitor. "Brendan!" Mrs Mayer's hand flew to her mouth as she noticed her son. She ran to him and hugged him. He was a bit taller than her. He hugged her back.

"Sorry Mom, I had to-"

"Oh Brendan, later, hold on," she said, looking as all good mothers do when their family needs them.

"We'll still need to screen her," Dr Sharon said as she swabbed the triathlete's arm to take a sample, "because we haven't got any paperwork right now. We have to test for HIV and make sure the blood type is-"

Mrs Mayer knocked the syringe out of Dr Sharon's hands. "Do you think I'd rather Norman die than risk getting HIV?!" she yelled. "She says she's type O! Why would she lie!" Mrs Mayer furiously grabbed the transfusion IV and methodically began cleaning the insertion point on the hand.

Everyone stood rather amazed at this sudden outburst.

"Is that all right?" Mrs Mayer asked Maria as she put the IV in.

"Just fine, thank you," the athlete replied.

Brendan gripped his dad's hand in both of his. He was sweating and his heart was beating thicker and louder than it had yet in the past 24 hours. His mom showed him how to hold a cloth to Norman's neck. She attended Maria but gazed on her husband as if he might disappear.

The blood ran through a diffusion unit and into a bag as Dr Sharon hooked Norman up as well.

The gym Leader's breaths were shallow. Brendan saw his neck wound was hardly bleeding. The heart monitor beeped slowly as blood crawled through the tube, into Norman's bloodstream.

"Where were you," Norman said weakly to Brendan.

"Helping Steven take care of the legendaries," Brendan said. "And turning the power back on." His voice was hoarse. He had never seen his dad so still and all the colour drained from him. Blood kept trickling through the IV.

"We should have never let you go on your experience period."

"I ... Yeah," Brendan said. Things were a mess. Magma was on the loose. Steven didn't have a clue. And neither did Brendan about what Maxie planned to do with his power. And it was partly on him, doing one thing after another without thought. Mostly on him. He'd been the first to see what Magma was up to and he hadn't gotten a shred of evidence, done the logical thing by letting the League know. It had been borne out of snubbing May's friendship with Steven. His pride. He'd gone running after them like a hotshot trainer and lost Swampert and May's Peli and his friends, what he thought he was. "Dad, I ... defeating your gym ... It doesn't count. I wasn't ready. I wasn't doing it the right way. You shouldn't feel proud of me," he mumbled.

"I am proud of you. You can't tell me to stop," he said, and he turned to Mrs Mayer. She came to him and leaned over him, watering eyes searching for something in his. The blood continued through the IV. Brendan started to breathe, his grip relaxing.

It was ok. Everything was ok.

A smile crept across both his parents' faces and everything in the room snapped as the heart monitor's beep went steady.

There was a kind of choked gasp from Mrs Mayer. Norman's extended arm fell back to his side on the bed.

_I heard wrong_, Brendan thought, staring at the flat green line on the monitor._ No, I didn't_. The beep droned on. His dad's hand was lifeless. He dropped it as Mrs Mayer grabbed her husband. She was a nurse; she had seen clinical death before. Instead of bursting out in denial, she sagged over him and held him tight like she could keep them there forever and never move on.

Brendan stepped away. He couldn't look as his mother cried steadily and softly and the two nurses filed out of the room, leaving Dr Shannon to quietly thank and dismiss Maria.

He wandered out into the hallway, where the busy staff had settled somewhat into the rooms under their care. Evacuees and people who hadn't been told to evacuate in time from nearby cities were trickling in.

He wandered down to the main floor. He wandered the foyer. He felt disembodied. There were great surges of something in him but he kept them tight and closed.

...

Courtney had a room she used to rent when she'd worked doing administration in Mauville and she went to the apartments on the outskirts of the city churned by cyclones. This one looked in fairly bad condition, soffit and fascia ripped off, but when she got in there were only a few puddles and leaks through the roof. No one was inside. Dr Syder followed her.

Courtney went to the computer and spent several minutes hacking in and listing herself as a reactivated paying resident. She got the key from the lockbox that had fallen and had been crushed open under a heavy ornamental Manectric statue. It was the Manortric Apartments after all.

"Room 37. If it's in bad condition we'll choose another," she told Syder. On their way up to the first floor they passed a group of teenagers dashing out and a young child standing in the hallway, lost. There were cracks in the wall and ceiling here and there. They passed some blown-out windows.

Fortunately, room 37 looked to be tight and solid. It was of moderate size, with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchenette and living space.

"I'm going to change and head out to the hospital," Courtney told the doctor, who she did not much like, as she walked into the bedroom. "The couch is a fold-out bed."

She shut the door and prepared for a nice shower. However, only cold water was working and it was a rather unpleasant experience. After she changed into plain clothes, she texted Maxie her location.

She wanted him to return soon. If he returned with Shelley - she would have to say something. That girl couldn't tag along with them any longer as some free agent. Courtney had picked her side. She was with Magma, and Magma couldn't take ex-Aquas.

...

"It's too bad I have to leave, but you can see I have to," Wattson said cheerily. Wallace, May, the three Magmas and Wattson had landed amidst the hurricane-struck city. People thronged in the streets and immediately began pressing against Wattson, Mauville's panel working their way forward. Everyone started shouting questions at him. Wallace glanced at Flannery and Roxanne still strapped to the swellow and then at Wattson being eaten alive by the crowds.

"We'll, a-hem, stay here with Ld. Wattson," one of the Magmas said while one nodded and the other texted.

"Thank you. Don't leave his side. Make sure he gets to the Commonhouse building safely," Wallace ordered them, rather tersely, May thought. She watched Ld Wattson as he was shoved around by the crowd, simply gazing up at the wreckage of skyscrapers, his line of vision slowly sweeping down to the blockage of industrial debris on the roads. The Magmas pushed their way into the crowd alongside the electric gym leader.

Wallace beckoned May and they each led a swellow along the side of the street, away from the crowds of people that were now flowing, running on emotional charge, towards the Commonhouse. May was about to mention the Magma with the broken arm, but realized she would be fine if all the Magmas had broken arms. She wondered at that sentiment a bit. She'd always been one to follow the rules, yes, but she had never ever wanted to see anyone hurt. This ordeal was forcing her to realize that people had to be hurt if rules were to be followed.

They took off again once they were clear of the crowd. It was nearing noon by now.

As they alighted by the largely undamaged hospital, May heard the unfamiliar thrumming of helicopters. She coughed, looking north, tasting ash in her throat. There were three of the aerial vehicles in the sky, drawing near-it took May a second to put a name to them. She had seen them once in her whole life, during one of Devon's big overhaul projects.

Wallace was already inside so she hurried in as well, leading the swellow with Roxanne, still mumbling, in after him.

...

Phoebe and Sidney returned to the League from an hour-long search. Phoebe was so tired that she collapsed on the cot that had previously held Roxanne, falling into a deep sleep.

Sidney healed their pokemon silently in the empty League foyer.

They hadn't found Brawly or Glacia, only a mightyena dead and entangled in seaweed. The ocean held more casualties than just the Groudon and the Kyogre.

It was about time to wake Steven up. The Champion had stacks of issues to take care of.

...

Steven came to. Although he was nowhere near back to full-functioning capacity, he felt deeply refreshed.

Sidney stood in front of him, hands clasped behind his back in an awkward way. Steven bolted up. Excluding the odd festival or party, his Elite Four almost never saw him in anything other than formal wear. And on those few occasions certainly not without a shirt. In Hoenn, modesty was like that.

Steven jerked his blanket up over his shoulders.

"What time is it?" he asked Sidney.

"It's 11:30 am. Once you're ready, I'm just in the foyer." Sidney left and Steven jumped up, struggling into his identical second set of formal wear. There was no time to feel triumphant about defeating the Groudon and Kyogre; the aftermath would be even more destructive in terms of people affected than the actual close-up conflict. He didn't want to do all this again, but he had to, and so he resigned himself to letting his mind race and whir and question and propose in the slim couple minutes it took him to make himself representable.

...

Maxie received Courtney's text and directed Salamence around the perimeter of Mauville, noting the extensive damage and the the beasts of machines thrumming through the air towards Hoenn's central city. Good, things would happen fast.

Alighting and recalling his huge dragon pokemon, Maxie hefted Shelley up and marched into the Manortric Apartments, as the fallen, simply engraved sign outside said.

Courtney was coming out just as he walked in. He saw her eyeing him. He knew he did look a lot more .. Common, in a plain sweater, without the boss coat.

"I'm on my way to the hospital. What are you doing with Shelley?" Courtney asked.

"Special delivery for the League and the rangers," Maxie said. He doubted news of Magma's hospital invasion would reach Steven sooner than he wanted to stay in the Champion's good graces. After this, they were free to be enemies, the League and the criminal syndicate. He saw Courtney's satisfied look. "Any last changes to the bug?" He tapped his pants pocket with his free hand. Courtney shook her head and continued in her way.

Maxie reached room 37. Not bad accommodations, but he'd have to find somewhere else to stay, he saw as Dr Syder was sleeping on the couch. But Magma's leader wouldn't have time to sleep much.

Putting Shelley on the floor, he relaxed on a mediocre kind of comfy chair and waited for a message from Steven. He was quite hungry, but the restaurants probably weren't up and running yet. Would they even be able to run for long with so much of Hoenn's agriculture shut down? Probably not.

A little trouble goes a long way inside the Mainland's rigid, perfect structures, Maxie thought.


	58. We'll Get You

Norman had been wheeled back into the ICU room. The coroners would come later; they had work in Mauville.

Brendan found himself there at his dad's side on a wooden chair. His mom had left with Dr Sharon, no tears but her mouth twisted down in sorrow, shaking her head slowly.

He stayed there, unfeeling, his ears ringing, staring at the lifeless face. It didn't really look like Norman anymore. At last everything tore inside of him and his vision dissolved into watery distortions.

...

The secretaries were back at the desk, working hard to input all the people coming in into the system. Usually they didn't have to, but for a calamity like this, there would need to be a record. A runner had already been sent to Mauville to gather what staff were off-duty and fit to work.

The line moved quickly, only a couple people long at one time. Wallace stepped up to the counter and told the receptionists everything they needed to know.

"We're here," May said to Flannery, who was now awake and lay very still, her shoulder swollen and blotched.

A doctor rushed into the registration area before they could even get to the waiting room and beckoned them one way. The swellow stalked behind May as she and Wallace tugged the birds along as fast as they would go.

Another nurse looked at Roxanne and directed her to be taken to a different wing, but Flannery was put in the closest room onto a hospital bed. Wallace recalled the swellow as a group of people passing by in the hallway called at him.

"Hey! You're Sootopolis' gym leader! How'd you get here?"

"Isn't Sootopolis all destroyed now?"

"I am not Sootopolis' leader anymore," Wallace said, turning to face them. "Sootopolis has been destroyed."

Exclamations followed as some hospital staff shoved them along. May glanced at Wallace but he only looked at Flannery with concern as the doctor inspected her shoulder.

"We're going to take her for a quick scan. Thank you for bringing her here, Ld Wallace-"

"Just Wallace now," Wallace said, gracefully nodding. "Thank you."

He left Flannery and Roxanne in the hands of the professionals and May followed him out of the halls into an alcove sort of waiting area. Pretty rabuta plants climbed over the walls.

"Thank you for your help, May," Wallace said. "You haven't been harmed?"

"Just some bruises," she replied.

"Excuse my asking, but did Winona manage to...?"

"Yes, she did - I tried to tell her to get out because Brendan texted me from outside to warn me that the sky pillar pokemon was coming. But she didn't listen. I think she was shocked fairly bad by the electricity."

"She went back to Fortree, I assume?"

"Yes," May said. She wanted to go but she had to ask Wallace something as well. "What was in the harpoon?"

"Dioxin. It could kill anything, that stuff. They have some locked up in the department store, in the leisure hunting section on the fourth floor." Wallace sat down in a chair rather heavily.

"But ... I'm not accusing you, but Steven expressly said that-"

"I know," Wallace cut her off shortly, "He has to follow the law. I'm just a gym leader."

What's the penalty for killing an ancient pokemon, May wondered. "I suppose the Kyogre could have revived, underwater, because it is a water pokemon," May thought out loud.

"Of course. It had to be killed," Wallace said matter-of-factly.

"So you and your sister do see eye to eye."

"On this one thing. I brought it up at Lilycove. Steven couldn't endorse it. Winona was the one with the moxie to do it."

"I have to go find a friend, if that's alright," May said after a pause. The hallway behind them was busy with foot traffic.

"Alright," Wallace said. He closed his eyes.

May headed off briskly down the halls, her stomach in a knot. There was still no text back from Brendan but May remembered that the Mayers had weekend appointments at this hospital. She'd seen Brendan fooling around on the routes with his friends when school was still in on those days. He wasn't afraid to tell his buddies that his parents were gone for the night so they could battle their pokemon in the forest or chase packs of zigzagoon around with water guns or go dustox-hunting (as far as May knew, they'd never managed to find one and so try getting high off snorting its powder). At any rate, the worst of the storm had hit during that usual time. The Mayers would've stayed here, probably. If Brendan had flown somewhere Mrs Mayer might know where he was.

The memory of the rain and storm surging around her as moonlight beamed down and Brendan looking at her with an expression of worry was first in her mind. Maybe she had been too judgemental about him. He was a jerk, but Peli's death hadn't been his fault, and she needed to say that.

...

May had no clue where Brendan's parents might be, so she stuck her head in a room where beds were filling up and a doctor was doing rounds.

"Excuse me," May called to the doctor as he dug around in a cupboard.

"One moment," he said impatiently as he dawdled by a patient's bedside, slowly dressing a cut on the arm. May held herself in the doorway. With annoyance, the doctor said, "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm wondering where Miranda Mayer might be now?"

"She went somewhere with Dr Shannon and a patient to the ICU," the man half-moaned in the horror of answering a simple question. "I'm busy now."

"Yes, thanks." May turned tail and dashed as fast as she could through the crowds down to the ICU wing. Her heart pounded. Could it be Brendan? No, it was more likely someone from Mauville.

She looked in one room then the other as the mill of family and staff jostled her around, looking for the familiar white hat. She got to the end of the corridor and nothing. About to attempt to find another doctor or nurse to ask, she caught sight of a yellow backpack in a room she'd already glanced in. Cautiously, she stepped in. Brendan was there, but not as a patient, and wearing a darker hat. Her whole being sighed with relief as the clawing guilt vanished. He was alright.

"Brendan-" she said as she jogged up to him, as he knelt hunched over by a bed like he was saying vespers. May stopped short at the feet of the person lying there. It was Norman. And he was dead.

Brendan turned his head and looked at her. She looked at him and swallowed. His expression was absolutely broken and there were tears swelling from his eyes, dripping off his chin line.

"Who..." May started. "I-I'm sorry," she stuttered and backed out. Brendan turned to keep his gaze on her as she left. She pressed herself against the wall outside as the guilt resurged on her. She shouldn't have told Brendan about Steven's plan. He should have stayed with his family. When had this happened? How had it happened? Norman... It wasn't like he'd been like a father to her, but Prof Birch had a history with him, and May had known him, if not intimately, for a long time. It struck her as a hard, cold fact.

She could hear Brendan crying. It wasn't a little kid's cry; it was a cry of grief. She saw a tearful mother and father she knew pass by in the stream of people.

She waited what seemed like a long time. Mrs Mayer, not seeing her, was escorted to the room by another doctor along with a couple undertakers. They went inside.

Brendan came out shortly, eyes red, eyebrows jacked up in helplessness and everything else that comes with death of a father.

/

He didn't care how May had gotten here, only that she had. He went down the hallway to an office. He hated the busy halls.

Slamming the door shut behind them, he collapsed in the swivel chair behind the desk. It was Shannon's office and she'd offered to share it with Mrs Mayer for the time being. Of course mom had put the small family photo from her wallet there. It was almost a year outdated. The Mayers had left a lot of the usual familial rituals out of life for their son to go on his experience period.

_' We should have never let you go on your experience period. '_

Brendan was furious at himself as he gripped the picture in his hand and then let it flutter to the desk so it faced the ceiling and he didn't have to look at it. There weren't any tears left in him. He was going to tell May who did it. He could trust her. Mom wouldn't believe him, there wasn't anyone else. But she asked first. She was standing there, in the room with him.

"How?" May said quietly.

"Stabbed," Brendan mumbled. "By Maxie. Arceus damn him."

"Magma?!" May exclaimed in horror. "Before?"

Brendan nodded and gulped down his running nose. "Before I went with you all. It's not Maxie's fault, it's mine," he said, the end jerking tears back down his cheeks.

"Brendan-" May said in the same tone his mother would have.

"But no, May." He stood up, approaching her. "I'm always running off some damn place. I just get-" he gestured- "-get what I was asking for." _Arceus, crying_. When had he last cried? Grade 7? Suddenly, May had grabbed him in a tight hug, her arms around his. He gave in and sagged. He could feel her breathing, subdued, as he merely bit his lip and let his throat knot sourly, refusing tears.

She let him go after awhile. He looked her in the eyes; hers were watering too and she looked half sad, half angry.

"I should never have told you. About what Steven said he was going to do. You would've been-" she started.

"No!" he stopped her almost furiously. She flinched. "No. I'm the failure. Not you," he said. He crumpled back down on the chair.

/

May left him, closing the door behind her. He was right. Just like she could've chosen to not go into the Cave of Origin, he could've chosen not to come along with Steven and her and stay with his family. But they were both failures, then.

Better to be a failure than a murderer.

Magma.

_We'll get you. You've done something you can't escape._

...

Wattson had made his way to the Commonhouse along with the rest of the panel members. The crowd pawed at their heels as they climbed the polished steps and entered the stone-wrought building. In terms of weather damage, it hadn't done too badly. It was the mark of the Mainland's authority in Hoenn and so had been built solidly and richly.

The panel members closed the doors on the cacophony of their citizens and faced Wattson. There were 32 of them.

"What do we need to do, crew?" Wattson said rather soberly, without a smile.

"There are people trapped under the debris."

"Someone turned the electricity back on, but food is short and some of the grocery places have been destroyed."

"We need to transport people to the hospital."

"The Mainland helicopters are about to land."

Wattson stopped the hubbub at the last statement.

"They're here?"

The panel member who had mentioned it affirmed the statement. "Listen," he said. The thrum of the aerial machines could be heard; the landing pad for emergency Mainland imports was on the eastern edge of the city, several blocks away from the Commonhouse. But they probably wouldn't park so far away.

Wattson designated several of the panel to go with him and greet the Mainland representatives. He divvied the rest up into groups; one for rescue, one for transport and one for analysis of the whole situation. "Get as many citizens as will help you all! Let's power this city up!" Wattson said. The panel diverged in a businesslike manner.

"Follow me! Let's see what the Mainland can do for us! Wahahahah!" Wattson headed off with his chosen companions behind him, the Magmas trailing protectively.

"We gotta listen up here," Remi, the one with the broken arm, told the other two in a quiet tone as they hurried through the grandly outfitted Commonhouse. "This could be useful information."

"Yeah, Remi, just keep your arm still," Stan told him. "Maxie just texted to say we should get into plain clothes."

"We don't have time," Marshal said gruffly. He was the oldest, a man of 30. "Just turn your sweaters inside-out."

The three did so and hurried to catch up.


	59. Totally Thrashed

3

Wallace and May sat at a table in the contest hall/hospital communal café. Roxanne was alright, just resting, but the doctors were operating on Flannery. She had to have pins put in; it was a proximal humerus fracture and the scans reported that things had been ground out of place.

May and Wallace had sat in silence and talked briefly of the struggle with the legendaries. Wallace had suggested that May sleep but she told him she couldn't possibly, and then told him about Brendan and Norman. When Wallace asked how it had happened. May shook her head and said she didn't know. She didn't even know what to feel. It was almost like she was trying to decide...

"Yes you do know," Wallace objected quietly, hands around his cup of tea. The café was nearly full. They had lapsed into silence long enough to pick up the disastrous reports from others around them; workplaces damaged, the trainer's school bashed in, food not coming in at all, travel through the city impossible, and folk from the surrounding area arriving, expecting aid. The general tone was one of hope that the Mainland would be able to help.

"I..." May trailed. "I don't know if I should be the one to tell you."

"Why?" Wallace rotated his mug in his grip. He had no hat and his long bright teal hair caught glances of recognition from some.

May had been thinking about this. Who knew where Magma was now? They had to be pretty big; the Aqua admin who had been trying to make off with the sky pillar pokemon had been wearing a Magma bandana. Perhaps some had defected from Aqua to join Magma.

And why had Maxie wanted to kill Brendan's dad? She found it hard to believe that Mrs Mayer was now a widow.

At any rate, experience had proved that she and Brendan wouldn't be able to accomplish anything by him dashing off and her trailing him. They needed the League on their side; they needed to convince Steven. He had seen what the Aqua admin wearing the Magma gear had done! ... But that wouldn't be enough...

May realized she hadn't answered Wallace's question yet. He was still looking contemplatively at her.

"Why? ... " May sighed, repeating his question. She was just going to go ahead and ask. "How much of a threat do you think Aqua is?"

"It's hard to say since they haven't shown up since Slateport," Wallace said with a slight frown. "Perhaps they've done what they wanted to do."

"How about Magma?" May pulled at her loosening pigtails, making sure they were even in terms of tension.

"They seem to be a help."

May tipped her head to the side for a moment. "That's Steven's line."

"'Steven's line'? We're quite good friends, are we?"

"You know," May said, half-joking, half-annoyed. "Do you trust what Courtney says when Magma's leader hasn't even showed up yet?"

Wallace leaned into his hand, tucking a stray kinky hair behind his ear, looking beyond May. "Courtney - if that's the admin who came to the League and was introduced by Steven - rescued Brendan a few times in the fray last night."

That surprised May, but if it was true, it was a good act. Just like all Courtney's explaining away about awakening the Groudon.

"I saw your pelipper fall in the Cave," Wallace continued.

"What? Were you there?"

"I came just at the end. Not soon enough." She saw the former gym leader swallow hard. "I made it out before the Groudon blew the Cave to pieces, luckily."

"Then you saw Magma. You saw their leader too!"

"I might've, but I don't specifically remember."

"All the same. Do you trust them based on that - actually, I should be asking, would you list them as an asset?"

Wallace exhaled. "No. I don't think they have noble intentions at all. If they were truly giving all they had to stop Aqua - we would know their leader by now. But it's just a feeling."

"Magma killed Norman."

Wallace's eyebrows rose. "Who, of Magma?"

"Their leader. Maxie. I left Brendan alone for now, but I'll ask him for more details later."

"I can't see any benefit." Wallace shook his head. He sipped his tea.

"Neither can anyone," May responded, irked a little by Wallace's constantly steady manner. "The thing is, I - well, Brendan and I - we've had this hunch about Magma for awhile. I know somewhere along the lines they promised the League they would take care of Aqua, but that doesn't mean they're on our side. Brendan has had a run-in with them. He got the same feeling as I - as we did from Courtney." May sighed, glancing around. Everyone was attending to their own pressing personal matters. "I need someone to back us. Even if it's just to convince Steven to set up a meeting with Magma."

Wallace nodded. "Of course. The murder of a gym leader is no light matter. Don't say anything to Steven yet. I'll ... ask around, talk to Flannery and Roxanne. I'll see if I can build a bit of a case."

May nodded but inside she was ready to call the Champion now. She hated how long it took for something to be finalized and then how inefficient the spur-of-the-moment plan was.

"I'm going to walk around," she told Wallace, getting up. She was going to ask him what he was going to do without a city and why he wasn't eager to head to Lilytree, but the man didn't seem like he was in a talkative mood. And she was done talking. She felt the weight of responsibility for the next step pressing on her, but her emotions were all up in the air and she didn't feel grounded at all.

...

Steven emerged from the back room in a matter of minutes, finding Sidney giving Drake his space as the former sailor guzzled some coffee.

Sidney had just told Drake that Glacia hadn't come back, and the last of the Elite was pouring a good splash of brandy in his mug.

"So," Steven said, drawing a long, taut breath. "Everyone left without me."

"Sure did. Wallace, May and Wattson took Roxanne and Flannery to Mauville's hospital. Me and Phoebe - she's out in Victory Road checking the damage - went to look for Brawly and Glacia."

"They didn't come back?"

"We didn't find them," Sidney said, looking down.

"You shouldn't have recruited the young 'uns for the job," Drake said gruffly. "They couldn't swim in such a storm."

"I can't believe Glacia ... " Steven shook his head. "Did anyone see her go under?"

"Was hard to see anything," Drake said. The alcohol must've loosened the normally stoic sailor's lips. His naturally-white moustache was wet as his gulped down his drink.

"Indeed," Steven said. He wrestled with staunch denial and sorrow and in the end fought them both down as Sidney stood there, looking rather vacant.

"Steven, what are we gonna do now? I mean," the first Elite said, scrolling through news on his Nav, "Hoenn's been totally thrashed. Not as if anyone'll be coming through the Road anytime soon."

"Of course. We- one second," Steven said as his Nav rang. There were a slew of missed calls and texts. He ignored the little attention-demanding notifications and answered the incoming call from Wattson.

Sidney waited during the uh-huhs and I'll be theres and OKs till the Champion ended the call.

Steven tiredly put his Nav back in his pocket. "Mauville has been hit hard by a cyclone in the night, and the Mainland building crew has just arrived with the delegation. I need to be there as soon as possible; Wattson hopes to negotiate aid, especially to Fallarbor ... he said the city's been completely buried by the eruption of Mt Chimney ..." Steven made a frustrated noise in his throat. "Are Glacia and Brawly really gone?" he said quietly, in a hard tone.

"We checked the area super well," Sidney said with a roll of his shoulders. "Maybe we shouldn't talk about it for now-"

"That's right," Steven said, as Drake stomped out to drink his infused coffee in the morning light. "We can't. I have to go, Sidney..." Steven trailed off as he dug in his other pocket for Metagross' pokeball. It was there but the ring around the release was dark, indicating it housed nothing. Still, the Champion opened it with a click. Nothing. He dropped it suddenly. His mouth tightened and he remembered the Groudon's massive eruption attack. He remembered falling off Meta into the dark depths, being brought up by Wallace's Milotic and frantically releasing Skarmory in order to escape the icy claws of the heaving swells-

Angrily, he kicked the empty pokeball across the room so it racketed off the opposing wall and into the sales desk and bounced back along the floor a few times before rolling to a stop. And he wished he hadn't.

"I suppose I'm no use here without - without," he said, with contained fury. Sidney remained quiet as the Champion dashed back to his room, grabbed Skarmory's pokeball, and dashed back out of the League.

There was another capsule in Steven's other pocket, with his Nav. But that one had to stay hidden. Here was the Champion of Hoenn - practically the president in terms of societal influence - keeping the information of this pokemon's existence from Hoenn and the Mainland, then capturing it, then keeping the capture as a secret. It made him more furious as he mounted Skarmory, that he had to have a secret weapon, one that contradicted the foundation of his employment. Not as if he had any special bond to the legendary, compared to others.

Wallace wasn't Sootopolis' gym leader.

And Steven Stone, the Champion himself realized somewhere deep inside with a maddening anger, was slipping from everything he knew the Champion should be.

...

May went ahead and talked to Roxanne alone, who was awake and tired, frostbitten fingers and arms wrapped in herbal cloth.

"It's very hard to remember," the small girl said in her high-pitched voice as she lay there on the warm ochre hospital sheets. "The Magmas didn't seem to do very much. Then again, not many of us could. I think we were all lucky. And I'm glad that we had Magma's numbers on our side..."

May nodded. She wouldn't try and recruit Roxanne for the anti-Magma movement.

"Rest up, Ld Roxanne," May said, getting up to leave. The rock-type trainer tapped her arm.

"Is everyone here in Mauville?"

"No, some are still at the League," May answered.

"How about Brawly?"

"He... I don't know, I didn't stick around long enough to see," May said. She waved a lame goodbye to the gym Leader's depressed expression. A doctor caught her as she was in the hallway, beds being wheeled and patients being led up and down.

"Excuse me, May Birch?" the doctor said. It was that ornery one from before.

"Yes, doctor?" May said politely.

"We're moving some of the healthier patients out to make room for new ones. Talk to the girl in there and let her know as soon as possible."

"What?"

The doctor was already walking away, in languid strides that actually carried him quite quickly. "The girl in there, Roxanne, she was entered under your care," he called back.

"I know, but-" May spluttered. The doctor was gone and May moved out of the way of a woman with an IV squeaking along beside her being escorted down the hall, two trained wigglytuff bringing up the rear.

May opened her Nav and scrolled through more news. Apparently Dewford wasn't exporting anything because of Ld Brawly's absence, Lilycove's power was still out, Mossdeep was half underwater, Slateport needed to feed its own citizens and Pacifidlog's, and people all over Hoenn were reeling from the way Fallarbor had been blotted out. Moreover, the thick ash filling the air couldn't be good for breathing, and Devon was cautioning people to stay indoors, but how could you without power? There were pictures of raided grocery stores, mobs at Pokemarts - realizing that the mines at Fallarbor had been taken out along with its people - and a shot of the quiet, mostly undamaged League. The headline drew suspicion to the Champion. The legendaries were gone, but all Hoenn was left in the lurch now, and the one journalist questioned what exactly had the Champion done with the legendaries and what were his motives.

_It's hardly been 12 hours, _May boiled. _Give the man some time to rest_. She stormed down the hallways, determined to get outside and maybe let her mind escape for a while, from this whole thing.

Outside, she was met with a steady stream of people lining up to be checked in, crying children, adults gripping their own wounds or a family member, people she recognized from Petalburg and Oldale and Littleroot.

The air was black-tinted. It left a dusty sooty feeling in May's nostrils as she inhaled. People approached the hospital from every direction, from the woods bordering the large clearing the hospital was built on, from Verdanturf, from Mauville. The forest looked somewhat like a tossed salad. The ground was marshy.

Now might be a good time to go find her dad in Mauville. She remembered now that she had yet to get Gallade back from Brendan. It could wait. She didn't have anything in her to convince her to go and nag Brendan, and not as if she could comfort him. They weren't friends. That fact hurt her a little, and it would have hurt more if she hadn't stuffed it down, festering in the back of her mind.

...

Steven was about to take off but quickly scrolled through a few messages, mostly from city panels and the media, asking for the big deal with the situation. One caught his eye; a text from Magma leader Maxie.

He read the apologetic blurb about the Aqua who had somehow joined the company, wearing the Magma headgear. At least Magma had caught her; the rangers were completely useless. The message also detailed that Magma had let a good number of its employees go as their families had been affected by the storm. The Champion re-read the message for any hint that Magma knew the rogue Aqua had captured the unknown legendary-and that he himself had taken it from her-but the text revealed no indication.

The last thing the Champion needed was for Aqua to show up again and start causing more trouble. If it's not trouble, he texted back, please bring her to the Pokemon League. We would like to keep her safe and ensure Aqua does not resurface at full power.

Steven stuffed his Nav back in his pocket. At least that was one good thing. It didn't do much for his state of mind. A gym leader had died. One of his Elite had died. There was really no logical hope that they hadn't. Metagross was lost.

"Let's go," Steven ordered Skarmory, and the bird took off.


	60. Speak For Yourself

May went back to the cafeteria. Wallace was sitting in a different spot, by some rabuta vines in the corner, eyes closed again. She was about to head off without mentioning where she was going but he opened his eyes and caught her attention.

"I managed to find witnesses who indicate that Magma forcefully commanded a certain wing for a short time last night," he said. May opened her mouth to thank him but he went on. "Steven is too busy. He has heard of Norman's death, but Brawly and Glacia's assumed deaths level the importance of any one case. He's been called to the Commonhouse." Wallace stood and faced May. He was tall, a good 6' 2", and she had to look up. "I do believe you. I don't trust Magma. But Hoenn is in crisis and until Magma acts, don't go looking for trouble."

"It will be too late by then," May snapped back, although that snap was really directed at Steven. Wallace's gaze remained soft.

"I know it could be, May. I'll stay here with Roxanne and Flannery. Go talk to Norman's son. Investigate. Let me know when you find something worth knowing. I'm on your side."

May looked into his eyes. She almost wanted to collapse into him. He was the only significant ally she and Brendan had. "Thank you," she said. "I'm sorry."

"Nothing at all," Wallace smiled faintly. May was about to go but remembered her question from before.

"Don't you want to get to Fortree with your citizens?" she asked him. "They're going to start building, won't they? The Mainland helicopters came!"

"I don't know. It's Juan's job," Wallace said, turning away.

"I still want to challenge you," she said, realizing he must've lost his position as gym leader when Sootopolis had been moved. Would it even have a gym now?

"That's kind. But I'm afraid you won't get any good reward." Wallace half-turned back.

"I don't care," May said a little stubbornly. Of course she knew that. She wasn't a kid who would still chase badges in the middle of this. "I saw how you were rescuing us last night with Milotic. And you beat Brendan. You're a good - an excellent - trainer."

Wallace turned to her with a smile and thanked her with a genuinely gleam in his eyes. "Let's hope there will still be a Pokemon League for you to become Champion after this mess is cleaned up," he said.

Absurd! May licked her lips which were a little dry. "I'm sure there will be. Ok, I'll see you later."

He lightly finger-waved goodbye as May dashed off.

...

Outside the air was still smoky. May planned to go and check in with her dad and then come back and see if Brendan ... If he was ready, if he wanted ... if he had the strength to do anything at all. At least he could tell her everything he knew. But they both needed time.

The line was longer and thicker. People came from every direction. May stood in bewilderment at first, hearing snatches of conversation... There was a limping young man from Fallarbor being embraced tearfully by his mother, there were a group of people surrounding a few lombre carrying suffering Pacifidloggers, there were several students from Petalburg huddling about an injured girl in contest dress, and of course there were many from Mauville - broken bones, bloody gashes, some unconscious and some sobbing in pain or because of others' pain. May made her way unhurriedly for the crowd of traumatized citizens, listening to what they talked about in angry or furtive or sorrowful tones.

"Mainland can only help..."

"The Champion will be able to negotiate aid!"

"All that help can't go to building a new city at a time like this!"

"I trust Wattson."

"Wattson, he'll be useless without the panel-"

"The panel is useless. This is the Mainland," an old woman insisted. She was probably old enough that she had lived on the Mainland once. "They do what they see fit-"

"They'll send help!"

"You watch! They have to bring aid!" younger voices drowned her out. She shook her head, as her elderly husband tugged up a big tank full of injured magikarp they had collected from around their daycare's lawn after the cyclone had died down sufficiently. The woman herself cradled a mewing evee and a couple ditto squished along behind her, leading two more beat-up evee. Pokemon battle items didn't heal physical wounds.

Instead of flying to Mauville, May walked half the way, against the major flow of traffic. The prettily planted avenues and tended lakes along the thoroughfare had been tossed by the storm as well.

May stopped at the cemetery. It was cultivated in an artistic succession of plateaus with sloping, brick-laid paths up and down from the rows of tombstones, disrupted by the cyclone. There were a few pouches of tightly-knit families around new tombstones. Daycare employees, some of whom were breeding students that May recognized, said the customary words. It was a human graveyard._ Why I am here, May_ asked herself rhetorically as she saw some rough caskets being buried without much ceremony, turning and walking out of the cemetery.

Across the stream of westward-bound people there was the pokemon cemetery.

May pushed a zig-zag path through and came to the entrance of the mirror-image cemetery. A daycare employee manned the low, decorative gates, where people lined up and paid a fee just to lay a marker down for their pokemon who had been lost. Only a few special ones were actually casket-buried in a fancy field like this.

May gulped as her feet moved to put herself in line. The sky had clouded over a little but the day was still bright. She texted her dad to say she was on her way.

It seemed like a frill, to charge so many a fee for so little a thing, but May didn't ask the gate attendant as she paid and clutched the two stone markers in her hand. She could guess from the young girl's pained face that she didn't like charging people. It was brutal truth, though, that all would need every penny they could get. Hoenn's depleting resources would likely go to the highest bidder in the days to come, unless the Mainland did something fast.

Walking through the gravesites and stepping over markers uprooted by the storm, May made her way to the far back on the second slightly elevated plateau. She found a bare stretch of grass and a family standing a little ways off whom she recognized: the Surus. Their kid, Wally- he'd been in school with her and Brendan and she'd even stopped in earlier this year on her experience period- was standing there, crying and coughing on tears with his face in his hands. He was small as ever in the shadow of Mr Suru.

May averted her gaze and knelt on the grass which squelched water up at her. She put the two markers in the ground, closer together than most of the others.

Pokemon trainers didn't have pets. They had friends. They had companions.

Tears trailed from May's eyes. At least she could cry for Peli and Swampert. She could accept it and move on. She didn't have the smallest inkling of how Brendan would live with Norman so suddenly taken. It made her features twist. _No, May. No tears. Save them as anger, store them for Magma. Work with what you have. _

Nevertheless, she knelt there for a couple minutes more as people went by behind her. She jerked back up as she felt a hand on her shoulder: Mr Suru. Wally.

"Hi Mr Suru, Wally," she said, sniffling back her tears.

"May. I wish I didn't have to see you here," Mr Suru said wistfully, his son still mostly crying, putting his face in his sleeve.

"Yes." May glanced at the frail boy.

"His ralts," Mr Suru said quietly.

"Kirlia!" Wally wailed. "It had just evolved! Yesterday!"

Mr Suru enfolded his son in his arms as the child collapsed into a hacking fit. "We were lucky we got out with our lives. Helen just had a minor concussion. We'll pick her up later. They do need to make room for more in the hospital," Mr Suru said. "The cyclone had mostly dissipated by the time it reached Petalburg, but it still hit everything hard. Once everyone realized the hospital didn't have power, we all headed here."

"You'll stay with Wanda in Verdanturf?"

"We're lucky to have a place," Mr Suru nodded. Wally still cried, heartbroken.

"I'm sorry. I should go," May said.

"Please, stop by," Mr Suru offered quickly. "You did so much by helping Wally catch his ralts. We can't ever thank you enough."

May could only nod and turn to go as she swiped hot tears away from her eyes. Much good it had done, helping Wally that day in Petalburg. She hadn't really even been trying to help, just butting heads with Brendan, focused on getting Norman's badge-

Yeah. She hated crying.

Sending out her borrowed swellow once she was out of the cemetery, she flew off toward Mauville to find her dad, hopefully food, and a plan.

...

Maxie was about to call Courtney so she could take Shelley to Steven, but as he stood in line for a long time at one of the few shops willing to sell food, he heard talk that the Champion was being summoned to the forum with the Mainland that was going on in the Commonhouse. It was a butcher shop; there weren't too many in Hoenn and usually only a certain demographic of non-trainers were its patrons, but not now.

Maxie walked the block back to the Manortric apartments, eating his sweet and sour wrap. It entailed strips of grumpig, elak and sauce along with some spicy berry. He had missed being outside, even outside in sooty air. Children ran among the hazardous debris, no school in session, and adults gathered in pockets where they weren't rushing to someone's aid or to get help for themselves, discussing how everything would be put to rights. He enjoyed being in plain clothes for once, able to walk the streets and only attract a few glances. Possessing an authoritative stride was habit.

Dr Syder was sleeping in the apartment. As Shelley was coming around Maxie slipped a drink down her throat that knocked her back out. Rohypnol; one of his pocket-sized treasures from the Mainland. He couldn't wait to get his hands on everything that the overlord nation had developed.

Pulling his official coat back on, he thought of himself as a caring law-abider and climbed up to the roof of the apartment. The ceiling had holes in it but the beams were still intact; he balanced and sent out Salamence. The huge dragon pokemon made the building creak and its straight metal legs shiver. Maxie harnessed Shelley on and mounted. They were off to the pokemon League; by a slightly roundabout route so as to avoid any other sky traffic.

...

There was no receptionist inside the flat-style hotel May arrived at not too long later, but desolate families were lugging suitcases of belongings in, so much that as May navigated the carpeted hallways and looked into rooms, she guessed they were setting up permanent residence. What else are you supposed to do when your house has been blown in, May thought. Wait for the government to get their act together?

With her dad's texted instructions, she got to room 22. Prof Birch was right at the door to meet her.

"Sweetie! I'm so glad you're alright!" He grabbed her and gave her a good squeeze.

"You too, Dad," May said. "Were you in the field when the storm came down?"

"Oh yes," he said, leading her into the two-bedroom suite with a kitchenette, "just north of Oldale. It was terrible! We'd had the dark clouds all evening, but I happened to look up and see all these funnel clouds, like tentacles! Well, I started for Oldale but the rain just came pounding down and pretty soon the wind was unbelievable - I took refuge inside the Pokemon center." The Prof puffed a breath out. He was a tad on the heavy side and had a bit of a boxed beard going on. "To get to the point - the roof was whacked right off by flying trees! Seemed like the whole thing was going to crush us in-somehow it didn't. But as we sloshed out a few hours later, all the Oldale folks saw it had pretty much levelled their whole town." He shook his head. He made a lot of hand gestures when he spoke. "It's terrible, May. I don't think Littleroot faired much better."

"It isn't that much farther south," May agreed.

"But, luckily I had this with me." Her dad handed her back Gallade's pokeball and explained about Brendan. May thankfully put it in her bag.

Strangely May didn't feel sad or anything at the thought that their home had probably been destroyed. Not as if she needed to go back. But her dad's research... Prof Birch grabbed some pastries and large petaya nuts and set them on the little table. May rooted through the cupboards for plates but the Professor found them first and the two sat up. May realized how hungry she was and barely got a "Do you have backups of your taillow project?" out before she was gobbling the heavy, paste-layered pastries down.

"Not all of it," the Prof said, mostly keeping his gamely expression, "But there's not much point in continuing now. Devon called and said they're suspending all projects. Instead they'd like me to take a look at the effects of this on the pokemon habitats."

"Mmm," May said, dusting her mouth off and peeling the leathery hide off one of the petaya nuts, "so are you going to?"

"We'll need money still," her dad chuckled.

"Yes, you might want to stock up on groceries before long."

"Good idea," the Prof said with a frown. "So, May! Tell me where you were. You're not hurt or anything?"

The bruises on her side were healing up and her arms scrapes were only scabs, but earlier she had seen a big bruise on her ribs and she didn't know where it had come from specifically. Sometime during the battle with the legendaries. It didn't hurt much though as long as she didn't bend over.

"No. I was in the storm when it hit. I went with Steven and all the gym leaders he could spare to where Sootopolis was."

"With the Champion?! In the middle of the storm? How could he let a young trainer-"

"He didn't want me to go, but I said I was," May interjected. She half-smiled. "It was pretty spectacular. The Groudon was just gigantic." May have her dad a condensed version of how the legendaries had been vanquished.

"Killed it?" the Professor gaped.

"Yes - well, no one really wanted to kill anything but how else would it be stopped?" May was going to tell her dad about the sky pillar pokemon but decided it wasn't necessary. She chewed on the nut as her dad sat back, seeming to consider these things. "Do you know where the Mayers are?" May asked cautiously in a tone suggesting that she already knew.

"I tried calling Norman, but I suspect they're occupied." Prof Birch made a succinct motion towards the damage outside. In this room there was a bucket stationed under a long dripping crack in the ceiling.

"Well..." May said, getting serious, "I was just at Mauville's hospital, and the Mayers are there because of their weekend appointments ...?"

"Oh, oh yes, Norman's therapy."

"Well... I saw Brendan," May said.

"Yes?" Professor Birch leaned forward. "Was something wrong?"

"Well... Brendan's dad, he ... Died."

Prof Birch sat back.

"No," he said with a shake of his head. Then, "How?"

"Magma. You probably haven't heard of them, but they're the ones who awoke the Groudon." May told her dad of her suspicions. "I'm sure they have other plans. I didn't ask Brendan exactly how it happened, but it looked like a neck wound." May gulped.

"So... At the hospital?" Prof Birch shook his head again.

"I guess. I didn't bug Brendan. I only went to the hospital to help transport Ld Roxanne and Ld Flannery there. They were hurt in the battle. But ... " May sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I don't know. We have to do something against Magma." She looked at her dad for advice. He was still shaking his head.

"I should get down there then. Offer my condolences," he said. "Why... why kill a gym leader?" he asked a second later.

"I don't know. I still have to talk to Brendan. I borrowed a swellow-we can fly back now." The Professor nodded, putting a couple pastries in a tin and grabbing his big jacket from where it was slung over the back of a chair. "I really can't believe all of this, May," he said.

"I know, me either," she responded.

...

Courtney was already at the hospital, amazed at the amount of people streaming in. The waiting room was stagnant as nurses whispered and doctors quietly conferred amongst themselves about who was first priority. Courtney was wearing black pants and her navy blue jacket; no red, Magma-logo'd hood, her short hair was combed and simply framed her face. She skipped the reception desk; the women working there glanced at her and didn't bother her, probably glad to not have another patient begging admittance.

After several minutes of searching and asking she found a room with a Mayer registered in it. When she got to it, there was Brendan Mayer's mom and coroners, recognizable by their all-white dress. Who had died? The boy? Courtney glanced back in at the wrapped body and the mother with her face in her hands, crying. The body looked too big for a teenager, but Courtney wasn't sure. Covertly, she walked the hallway and glanced back in as the coroners left and the mother stayed there. The Magma admin settled in an alcove from where she could still see the door and waited for the boy's mother to move.

...

When May and her dad got back to the hospital, Mrs Mayer was kneeling beside Norman's now empty bed. May left Prof Birch as he went to her side.

The halls were as full of people as ever and some of them were having heated arguments with doctors, pleading for a longer stay or more attention. May rather aimlessly meandered along as she read a text from Wallace saying he was taking Roxanne back to Rustoboro, and then she stopped in by Flannery's room. Even with so many needing a spot, the nurse who happened to be just outside told May that Lavaridge's gym and panel leader was in for a long stay.

Not that she had any disrespect for the sick and injured, but May didn't like being in a hospital for too long. She was useless in here. She resigned herself to simply wait for Brendan as she made her way downstairs to a noisy crowd in the waiting room, a different noisy crowd than at the reception.

"Please!"

"Try it at least!"

"This hospital's full! We need the one in Petalburg," the people were shouting desperately. May shouldered her way into the group; who were the people trying to get to be their saviour -

Brendan. He had his hands up and was backing away, but a row of chairs stopped him and the people crowded in further.

"Can't you do it again?"

"I heard it straight from a doctor! You were the one who turned the generators on!"

"We need the power on!"

"Do you want everyone to die?!"

Brendan tried to gesture everyone back but it didn't work. "I'm sorry-not now," he said, but the insistent people drowned him out.

May was jostled backwards by the crowd as she made no move to fight them. Reaching inside her green bag, she released her makuhita. Cute enough she wouldn't get in trouble, she hoped as she moved in front of Brendan and the makuhita made karate-sounding noises and swung its balled fists at the crowd. They jumped back and May grabbed Brendan's wrist, pulling him along for the doors as makuhita covered them. They burst into the open-and the stagnant line for admittance-as May recalled her pokemon.

The two ran west, Brendan in the lead. May followed. Splintered trees and tree branches like a sprinkle of herbs layered the cultivated path. There was not much traffic. That thick sooty feeling built up at the back of May's throat as she panted, her runners propelling her on against the marshy ground. Even the sunlight was cast over by an ashy veil.

She was pretty fit now, she thought as she kept up with Brendan, Verdanturf visible in the distance, having hiked around Hoenn on her XP period. She had to pull her stretchy black capris up. Still a little chubby, but not 10 pounds over anymore.

Brendan slowed by an outcrop of directional signs, still-standing: hospital, that way, contest hall, that way, Rusturf tunnel, the opposite way. They came to stand in a patch of semi-secluded shade.

May crossed her arms, getting her breath back. Brendan was panting lightly and his eyes were wild, his half-frame glasses tilted on his nose. The bridge of his nose was bruised and scabbing.

"Thanks there," he said.

"No problem. You fixed the electricity?"

He nodded, wiping the strands of black hair that had escaped his toque away from his glasses. "Yeah-I went to New Mauville - it's part flooded, Magma has moved out-"

May had a question but held her tongue.

"-and turned the power back on, but," he left off as he viciously rubbed his face with his hands, "Arceus damn it, May, it wasn't soon enough."

He sat down on the marshy grass. May sat on a fallen branch, uncomfortable but dry. She waited for him to finish as he left his head supported in a hand, propped up on his elbow, not looking at her. He was taking quick breaths that eventually slowed. He looked up at her.

"You were right. If I didn't go running wherever I want to, then- things wouldn't be like this."

Something twinged in May. He was saying he was wrong?

"We should have - I should have just stuck with you or something, I can't fight Magma," he said, a tear building up in the corner of his eye which he swiped away. He snucked back more tears.

"It's not your fault Peli died," May said quickly.

"I know," Brendan said, "But maybe ... I could've prevented it if ... I don't even know where Magma is, Maxie's way more powerful than me, and I don't have Swampert..." His Adam's apple worked. "Arceus, May, you don't have to stay to watch me cry," he said in a bitter tone.

"I'm not. I mean... You should cry. I wish I could." May shook her head. So many deaths and injuries and so many close to home, yet only a few tears for Peli had escaped her.

"You don't," Brendan said with a pained expression.

"I do." May paused. "I put a marker down for Swampert at the cemetery. Your mom told me."

"How she died?"

"Just that she did." May looked at the ground, fiddling with grass in her fingers.

"Magma again," Brendan said, a hatred in his tone May hadn't felt so deeply before. "Maxie took all her blood. She lay there dying. There was this fluid all over her, she.. And I came in and Maxie wanted me to make her attack, so he grabbed Dad and said or else."

May's heart jumped. Now they were getting on to something - _May! Norman's died, let Brendan be! _But she couldn't repress her desire to do something.

"Why?" May asked.

Brendan kept looking down.

"Brendan, Wallace is on our side, but he's the only one, and he knows as well as I that Steven isn't going to go after Magma without substantial cause," May said. "We need to know what they're planning-"

"I know!" Brendan shouted through gritted teeth, looking at her finally. He panted. "You got Wallace with us. Thanks," he said, softer. He let out a long breath. "I have a theory. I have a-a guess. I don't know where Magma is, but I could bait them." He made a shrugging motion. "Do you want to hear it? Because the only who believed me, who saw it, was Dad and he can't help us anymore." Brendan said it rather quickly. "Mom doesn't believe me. If I tell you, May, you have to believe me and we're going in it together."

"Speak for yourself." May gave him a look. _It's what I've been trying to accomplish all along._

"Ok," Brendan said.


	61. Could Be

"Before you start-" May interrupted him. "You ... rescued me, by Sootopolis."

Brendan remained quiet. He nodded slightly.

"Thank you." May folded her hands in her lap. "I wouldn't have made it." She wished she could say it better. And say what she was trying to not even think about, because she knew on some level it wasn't really valid, was it?: if she hadn't told him about Steven's plan, he could've been able to stay with his dad. _Save him_...

"So, I didn't tell you everything about that first time with Magma."

May half-smiled cynically but didn't have the strength to say_ I figured_. As Brendan told her everything about the sludge bomb and Maxie capturing him and showed her the scrapes on his palms she got more serious.

"I didn't tell you that our house burned down," Brendan said.

"No," May said after a startled pause.

"Didn't suffer much more loss from the hurricane. It did. I burned it down. Then I found out I could ..." Brendan trailed. Throughout this conversation small swarms of volbeat had been flitting through the forest, some looking tipsy, no doubt from the smoke in the air. May saw Brendan flick his fingers toward one of the large bug pokemon and a jet of fiery energy shot out and made the volbeat faint. May looked down at the bug and then at Brendan. "Just on a larger scale. That's how I got the power back on too. I think - it's weird huh-"

"Ye-eah," May stuttered on excitement. "You just flamethrowered that volbeat."

"Yes, here's what I think-Maxie's planning to use the power, for something bad."

"Use you?!"

"No, no he's got it."

"How many people have it?" May gaped.

"Just me and him I think. He was at the battle, staying out of range: when the Kyogre died, I felt a bunch of energy go out and I followed it. I think Maxie's already used the stones. Anyways, he KO'd swellow with fire blast or something - he used it - and I came back here."

"You don't have any proof?"

"Not of his skills."

May stood up. She wanted Brendan to do it again but it would be kind of fangirl-ish, wouldn't it? "But what is he planning?" she said exasperatedly to herself. "Hold it, how did he get it in the first place?"

Brendan told her about the hospital take over and Swampert's death.

"Swampert's blood?" May ventured quietly.

Brendan shook his head, still seated. "It must've been. I don't know how."

"How did _you_ get it?"

Brendan shrugged. May paced.

"The body..." May trailed. "Maybe we should ask my dad to take a look."

"Maybe."

Brendan shook himself and stood up. "I don't think Aqua's a threat anymore. I saw one of their admins at the hospital, she was practically leading the Magmas, defected or something. News hasn't been saying much."

"The red haired girl?"

"Yeah, her."

"She joined the legendary battle at some point, I saw her wearing a Magma headband."

They puzzled out a few more details. But nothing concrete on what they should do to get attention from authorities.

"Maxie is going to come after me," Brendan said. "I'm sure."

"Because you both are the only human type pokemon."

"I guess." Brendan cracked a smile for a second.

"Well, let's see if we can talk to Steven at the League, or at least Phoebe and Sidney," May said, flipping out her Nav. She moved out of the shady trees onto the grassy debris-strewn roadway to Verdanturf.

/

Courtney had lost the kids for a bit and had managed to find their spot in the trees, but she didn't try to get too close in and among the fallen branches. Nevertheless she caught the drift of what they were talking about. So Maxie had had a run-in with this kid, and this kid had the activated pokerus too. Maxie hadn't told her. No matter, she had found out.

She didn't stay around any longer, spooked by May's suddenly elevated voice to make a Nav call. This put a whole twist in their plans. And here Courtney thought Maxie just wanted to keep tabs on the boy because he'd seen the transfusion and the death of his pokemon. Did Maxie not trust her with that knowledge?

At least that wasn't of much consequence. She knew they weren't a present threat.

The only matter she had trouble to keep from chilling her blood as she jogged back towards Mauville was the boy's father being taken away out of the hospital room, dead and leaving the kid and his mother to cry over him.

/

When May got off the phone, Brendan could only guess at what Phoebe had told her.

"The Aqua admin that was with Magma? Apparently she's being held at the League! Magma's leader just dropped her off- Phoebe says that she's supposed to be a double spy working for Aqua, but I mean, we're free to go and question her!"

Brendan found he didn't really want to go. "That's good.. But, uh, I ... I have to stay," he looked down again, reminding himself there was just his mom and him now, no dad. "For Mom."

He heard May sigh a repressed sigh. "I get it," she said. "Of course. When I come back you have to show me more of those pokemon moves. And if it's not too much trouble, see if my dad won't have a look at what Maxie did in the hospital."

"Yeah." Brendan dug in his backpack and handed May a pokeball. "Swell is faster than your palm tree dinosaur. It'll listen to you too."

/

May was floored and let Brendan hold the dully glinting, dual-coloured sphere out for a moment.

"Thanks," she said, feeling like they'd both thanked each other too many times. Making up for it, I guess.

"Yeah," Brendan said, in a chipper tone. He stuck his hands in his pockets as May released the magnificent bird. She stroked its headcrest and then climbed on, Brendan giving her an unexpected boost. She looked at him in surprise. He didn't blush, he was ashen, just as off-coloured white as the air was off-coloured in soot. "So I'll get the Elite Four on our side," she told him. "And find out Magma's plans. Be back." Swell cawed at a nod from its trainer and they took off, May grabbing on tight with a "whoa!" as her gut sank and they shot up. She risked a few glances back at Brendan as his figure grew smaller and smaller below them.

Despite how well that had gone, she felt uneasy, and she couldn't explain it. Of course, she felt terrible for Brendan - or did she really? she felt terrible that Norman had died at the hands of Magma - and he was making an effort now, but that didn't mean he couldn't turn around and ditch the plan at a moment's notice. Just because he rescued her in the battle didn't mean he'd do it every time. Oh, no, she had learned that from Rosa. And just because it was terribly illogical, it didn't mean that she wouldn't feel guilt, however small, over suggesting he come and fight the legendaries instead of staying with his parents.

...

The three Magmas were shooed out by Wattson as the Mainland dignitaries convened inside the Commonhouse's foreign affairs room.

They managed to escape the crowd that was outside the solid building, people milling about, grumbling, waiting. They walked down a few streets, grabbed some food from a couple teenagers as they saw all the food-selling establishments were closed. A truck even came into the street to unload packaged sweets from Dewford but it was mobbed before the driver could even think of getting over the road barriers to deliver his cargo to the right store.

They were getting paid for whatever they did, as long as they were ready to go. Courtney had told Marshal via text where they were staying and they sparred amongst themselves all the way there.

...

The head of the Mainland delegation was a man who introduced himself as Wells. He was somewhere around fifty with small eyes and a bit of a paunch. He wore a suit jacket and jeans, the latter being completely out of place in Hoenn, a mark of the Mainland. While the construction forces waited outside, Wells, eight colleagues, Wattson, Steven, and available Commonhouse members discussed the situation in the foreign affairs room, sitting around circular wooden tables.

It had been awhile since the Champion spoke with a Mainland representative. Things had gone smoothly in Hoenn, as planned, until now.

And the meeting lasted only a scant few minutes in peace before it turned into an argument. Steven didn't care for Mainland people, barging in with their strange clothes and their contempt for pokemon, their contempt for the ways of their underlings. Despite the fact that Hoenn was in dire need of aid, he found himself half standing, fists clenched.

"We submitted a request for ruin exploration two years ago! This all could have been prevented-"

"It has never been the Mainland's duty to fund pokemon exploits," a grey-haired woman in a peplum said. She seemed to be the voice of Wells while he sipped a hot drink and made facial expressions accompanying the other's speech. The peplum looked ridiculous to Steven.

"It's the Mainland's duty to prevent thousands of people from dying!"

"Even if we could prevent natural disasters, Mr Stone, we didn't receive any valid scientific notification that ..." the woman motioned with her hands.

"We notified you of the legendaries. Doesn't 'legendary' mean something? They can be dangerous!"

"We have outfitted every region with resources to survive, and it is the responsibility of the regions to care for indigenous species," Wells said in his thick voice. Besides jeans, you could tell a Mainlander by his slight accent. 'A's were more 'ā' and less 'ah'. Everyone in the room focused on him.

Steven couldn't control his anger. He knew what Mainlanders thought of pokemon. An indirect money source. "Pokemon shape our land," Steven said furiously. "They are powerful. They can be natural disasters in and of themselves-"

"Mr Stone," Wells said, retrieving something from his pocket. "What is this?" He held a palm-sized sphere.

"A pokeball," Steven said through his teeth.

"And what do you use it for?"

"To keep pokemon."

"Correct." Wells rolled the pokeball down the expanse of the table till it spun off the edge and into an empty trash can. "Please use it for its intended purpose."

"You didn't allow us to. That was the only thing you did when we asked for funding to explore the ruins of the legendaries, told us we weren't allowed to capture them-"

"Excuse me," Wattson said, standing. Steven stood belligerently for a moment, still feeling exhausted and at the end of his rope. "I think we should talk about the present issue."

The Commonhouse members agreed and Steven sat, burning to dig into Wells after, although he knew he couldn't because the Mainland was their only source of help.

Details of the construction plans were mulled over for a good two hours and just when Steven didn't think he could keep up his polite assents and look of mild interest any longer, Wells interrupted the blueprint-laying and economy-predicting and said,

"This was viable when you first requested aid, but a volcano erupted while the construction crew was journeying here. Let's move to the question of, do we waste time and effort building a new city in the middle of a regional crisis?"

One of the Commonhouse members stood at a nod from Steven, hooking a Nav to the TV that faced the Mainlanders' side of the table. Graphs popped up.

"I have preliminary statistics from Devon corporation," Steven said. He delivered the alarming information: food production was down more than 50%, the mines in Fallarbor were buried under volcanic flows, electricity was off in Lilycove and Mossdeep, hospitals that did have power were already at maximum occupation, and the average city had sustained damage to most of its facilities. "Most of all," Steven concluded, "8.6% of the population has been wiped out. And it's on the rise, without functional medical services, sufficient food sources, and emergency aid."

"What do you want the Mainland to do?" Wells asked, leaning back in his chair. Steven's jaw tightened and he pushed down the fury that bloomed in him. As if Hoenn were begging for help from some exalted deity. The Mainland needed the region. The Mainland sustained itself off the regions' economies.

"We want you to make sure the stocks don't fall any further," Steven said carefully. He had learned a little of how it worked and was pretty sure that the Mainland allowed many of its people to own parts of Hoenn through stocks, and if Hoenn wasn't doing well, they lost the money they had put in.

"Sending in emergency aid won't improve numbers," Wells said derisively, draining his insulated mug.

"But are we going to build this city?" a Commonhouse member exclaimed abruptly.

"No," Wells said, leaning forward.

"Then what?" the same member continued. "I live in Fortree. It's terrible there, they've got families cramped 3 to a house, the men are working all day with wet wood trying to fill a barrage of construction orders, and they come home to no food! Something has to be done!"

The Commonhouse side erupted with similar desperate sentiments. The Mainland side sat unimpressed under Wells' lead.

"I've heard a city was recently abolished," Wells said after the noise died.

"Yes, Sootopolis, a major agricultural producer. That was where the legendaries awoke, sabotaged by Aqua."

"The petty crime you can't control is none of our business," droned Wells. "How much damage had been inflicted when this decision was made?"

Steven thought. "The volcanic walls that held the city up and in had been significantly damaged."

"Would you call your region's damage significant?"

"Of course."

"Then I suggest a similar solution." Wells eased himself up and took a flat black device out of his pocket, leaving the room. The woman in the peplum spoke for him.

"He'll be back. This decision needs higher approval."

The Commonhouse sat stunned for a moment and then reacted much the same way Sootopolis had when they had received the news that they weren't going to exist as a legal entity anymore. Steven sat somber while astonishment and horror and anger swirled in the voices around him. Of course the Mainland wouldn't think anything of simply blotting Hoenn off the map.

He was sitting here while people were dying. He didn't want to be here, this wasn't the Champion's job and what would happen, by the ancients, to his position as Champion? What would all those hoping to become Champion - like May - do-? Where would they go?

That was the question raging around him.

Where would Hoenn go?

...

Wallace escorted Roxanne back to Rustoboro. The trip took some time, even with Roxanne's nosepass clearing natural debris out of the way. The Rusturf tunnel was cool and the air was unpolluted; when they got out the other side the sooty air filled their lungs again as they hashed through the grass route to Rustoboro. The ash was visible in the air, so close to the eruption site.

About the time that May, flying on Swell, could see the hulk of the League looking ahead across the waters, Wallace and Roxanne arrived in the cobblestoned, iron-fenced city of Rustoboro. The buildings were built with layered stone architecture and the streets were straight and clean, but deserted, houses full. The odd person ran through the street carrying an armload of merchandise and straggling groups of people forced out of their homes in Petalburg, knocking at every door. Pools of water gathered in the streets and Wallace helped Roxanne avoid them.

"To the city hall by Devon," Roxanne panted in her high voice.

"You're supposed to be on bed rest," Wallace said mildly.

"I'll do what I want," Roxanne retorted. Her armhold on Wallace was delicate. Not many words were passed between them. She directed him to the city hall which stood in the shadow of the balustraded, pillared Devon headquarters.

Roxanne was received by her city's panel debating loudly, and Wallace slipped out. He paused outside the thick, carved doors of Devon headquarters. The air swirled thickly around him and he underwent a bout of coughing.

...

May landed at Evergrande as the sun was going down and the Commonhouse in Mauville held a solid crowd at bay, while the men who owned Hoenn and the men who led it engaged in a tussle for Hoenn's preservation.

She recalled Swell. The bird had an idea of its own of exactly how to fly and where to fly and did so rapidly. But May was confident enough of a flier and it headed the right direction. Her legs felt strong underneath her even after the ride of a couple hours as she marched past the fallen logo into the League.

Phoebe and Sidney were laughing together, having brought out Steven's stash of alcohol and alcohol flavourings and they were mixing up concoctions with Drake's espresso machine at the sales counter in the deserted foyer. The leftovers of the emergency supplies had been stacked in a corner.

"Hi, Phoebe," May said as the native girl turned to her, and May was surprised to see she had a bit of a sad expression. Sidney finished a drink, sat rather heavily on one of the plush cream orange waiting chairs, waving at May, and then fiddled with the cords of his amp and electric guitar.

"Hi May, sorry about all this-" the native girl coloured a bit "-Sidney's pretty gone but I have my head on straight. Drake's taken off for the Commonhouse just now. You said on the phone you wanted to talk to that Aqua spy we shut up?-You should be with your family!"

May told the first Elite about Norman's death, simply stating that Magma's leader had killed the normal type gym leader and leaving out the complications with Swampert. "I already told my dad and he's - Professor Birch that is -"

Phoebe got a little excited that May was the professor's daughter, as she'd heard of his research.

"-well, he's concerned enough he said I could come here. I need to talk to that Aqua, whoever's side she's really on. Did she say anything yet?"

Phoebe shook her head, her tight dark brown curls bouncing. As Sidney struck up a mournful rendition of the gym theme, stilted timewise, Phoebe led May back. Because the League attracted high-ranking trainers and official political issues often stopped here on their itinerary from Mainland to Commonhouse to Hoenn's cities, there had always been a holding cell built into it in case trouble should arise. And it had been used before. Many set their dreams on becoming Champion and were devastated enough to lash out when their dreams were crushed.

Phoebe paused, twirling the key on her finger outside the plain metal door with a small one-way window set in it. "You know May," she said sadly, "this is all a total bummer. I haven't fought a challenger in a few days and probably won't anytime soon."

May felt terrible at her friend's forlorn expression. She had never seen the Elite look this down. _Wait, friend? I guess I do consider her a friend_. May pulled subconsciously on her long pigtails, straightening them. "We could battle, after," May said eagerly. "If there's time. I'm sure there would be."

Phoebe grinned. She had a pretty smile, straight white teeth. "You're on! But the bond I have with my pokemon is tight! You'll have to try and see if you can even land a hit!"

The Elite released a duskull which floated with May into the interrogation room for protection. May confronted Shelley, who was sitting on a low bench in the sterile room. Phoebe stood outside with the key, listening by the external speaker.

"I remember you from the Weather Institute," May stated, a lift to her chin. The woman with the gorgeous red curls had the Magma bandana under her foot and had a half-worn-out, half-spiteful expression. May definitely knew her by her hair although she wasn't dressed in Aqua colours.

"Yeah, and you too," Shelley returned. She turned her attention to the wall.

"Are you really an Aqua spy?" May asked.

"Not really, since Aqua doesn't exist anymore."

May decided to come back to that revealing statement later. "Are you part of Magma?"

"No," Shelley spit.

"Why were you flying with Magma, wearing their colours at the site of the battle with the legendaries, a fact that more than three witnesses can attest to?"

"Why do you need to know?"

May sighed. "Look, Maxie has killed a gym leader, and we need any information you can give. Show you're not with Magma and you could be let out."

"So Norman died from the wound?" Shelley said, tracing the site of the slash on her neck. She snorted. "Never will get his badge."

"You were there when it happened. We have witnesses saying that you were in a leadership position with the Magmas then."

"They were all standing there like idiots and we needed to get out - if they got caught, I would've gotten caught too. Why should you care? Both Aqua and Magma are 'evil'." Shelley made quote marks with her fingers.

"Not if you say Aqua doesn't exist. Have proof?"

"Sure, somewhere close to New Mauville. That asexual brat Courtney would know. Maxie got rid of all of them. Except a few, but he brought them back and killed them off later." Shelley shrugged. "Archie was just causing trouble," she muttered. "He didn't deserve it."

"We don't have time to do a search," May said, cautiously deciding if she was going to believe that report or not.

"You asked, kid. Just get Courtney."

"We don't know where Magma is or what they're trying to do. We can't, that's why I'm asking you to tell us everything. You're helping yourself."

May received a sidelong glance from the Aqua admin.

"Maxie didn't tell me his plans. I never joined him after he took me at Meteor Falls," Shelley said. May nodded. She was recording this on her Nav. "I thought it would be a kick hanging out and getting paid for it."

"He kidnapped you and then paid you?"

"Insurance." Shelley gave May a derisive look. "He had a reason to be afraid of Aqua. Any one of us could've kicked your ass in battle, kid."

May tightened her fists. "I don't think so. So why did Maxie take Swampert's blood? Any clue at all?"

"He had a lab. He was gone a lot," Shelley shrugged.

"But why did he need that specific Swampert?" May pressed.

"I don't know. He wanted all that other kid's pokemon at first. Swampert was enough."

"Ok... Why was he at the battle as well?"

"You saw him?"

"That 'other kid' did."

"He had the stones with him."

"Stones?"

"The Groudon and the Kyogre's stones, kid."

"Do you know what he planned to do with them?"

"No, I don't. But he did whatever he meant to do. And then he dumped me here." Shelley's face took a sour turn. "This isn't very humane. I'm hungry."

"I'll get you something. I'll talk to Phoebe about letting you out." May nodded and exited, the duskull behind her.

Out in the hallway, she rubbed her temples while Phoebe went to get some fried fish for their prisoner. The thing about the stones was important. Maybe they had given Maxie the power. But then why did Brendan have the power as well? His pokemon were the common thread. May arrived at the conclusion that Swampert, and Brendan's other pokemon, were somehow related to getting these powers, but Maxie was probably overpowered because of the stones - unless Brendan hadn't told her something. She texted Brendan and sent him the whole audio clip, fingers flying. But still no clue of what Maxie planned to do or where he was going.

/

Shelley cursed Maxie and the League in her head as the Elite in the bandeau delivered her a steaming plate of fish. She liked seafood. She faced the wall as angry tears traced down her cheeks. She wasn't a bad girl. She knew she just wasn't an intellectual and her life was losing meaning. It had been ever since Flannery took her spot as gym leader. She wasn't a bad girl, she'd just had to resort to trying it, losing her heart to a murderer who went from proposing she be his second in command to leaving her to his enemies. That was right. She rubbed her eyes as she remembered what she could before getting here.

She wanted to kill Maxie. Murderer and rapist. She would kill him, or at least nearly. That would be just as good. She couldn't help the tears that streamed down her cheeks, her mind battling against the feeling of helplessness that lingered and the burn racing through her blood of how he'd owned her.

She realized that if she could back this kid and this kid could show Hoenn that Magma was the bad guy, she might just not have to break the law in her revenge.

Wiping her tears away with her hair, she got up and banged on the door, redirecting the festering fear and hatred stirring in her gut to her plan of action.

...

Swell was followed by a golbat on the way back. May kept glancing back at the admin, sure she would take off somewhere; but Shelley remained right on her tail.

_Well, I guess I'd be ticked if my boss had me locked up in my enemy's prison too_, May thought. She hadn't gotten a text back from Brendan. She hoped this would be enough to get to Steven in the Commonhouse and convince him.

...

The thick crowd outside the Commonhouse was growing. People were telling their family and friends elsewhere that the Mainland was in Mauville. More trickled in every hour, setting up tents in the streets and hoarding what food they had. One of the nearby hotels was being used as a hospital of sorts. Lilycove's power outage originated somewhere in underwater cables; Mossdeep was flooded and both those cities had some sort of flu from dead fish washing up on their coasts.

A few more food trucks arrived from Dewford and were mobbed by the raging crowd, which became even more angry as they found the trucks were mostly empty, as people in Rustoboro and Verdanturf and Petalburg had already been fed.

TV wasn't working, but radio was and people sat around a station-subscribed Nav as they slowly suffocated in anxiety.

They made a disorganized attempt to storm the Commonhouse late at night but were rebuffed quickly by the Mainland's building crew.

If you weren't in front of the Commonhouse, you were running through the streets and in now-abandoned, destroyed buildings, looking for anything to help you survive. A game to the younger kids. Remi, Stan and Marshal scared off some roving teens and headed down to watch the racket at the Commonhouse as the building crew put up a solid wall and rebuffed the small surge of angry Hoennites.

"Let's go," Marshal ordered gruffly. The three Magmas had replaced their logo'd clothes with dark-toned outfits, free courtesy of the knocked-in clothing store on 32nd avenue.

"Whaaaaa," Remi yawned. "I'm tired."

Stan was throwing a set of knives he'd nabbed from another abandoned store across the pavement thudding into a collapsed pole of traffic lights. He was a good shot even in the falling dark.

"Get your knives," Marshal told Stan. "See that bigger orange tent? That's the leader's. Think. When Maxie comes back, won't he be pleased if we're already the main help of the resistance?"

"Oh yeaaaaaah," Remi said. Stan grabbed his knives and the three headed off.

A short meeting filled with some knife skill demonstrations and a show of fifteen snarling, trained-to-kill mightyena, they were in.

...


	62. Stoking the Fire

May and Shelley got to Verdanturf around 10 p.m. May didn't trust Shelley completely, but she didn't seem dangerous.

May introduced her to Wanda, Wally's aunt and Mr. Suru's sister. Their house had remained undamaged except for flooding; Verdanturf was definitely a non-commercial town and filled with flat, 2-story max buildings. It hadn't been wrecked as Mauville had.

May begged the favor of Mr Suru, introducing Shelley as a trainer who helped Steven and the rest. Shelley was decently polite and they gave her a bed for the night.

"Won't you stay?" Mr Suru asked, encouraging her inside. "Most everyone is filled with people from all over. There are even some from Mossdeep-sick with a flu," he said, wringing his hands.

"No, I can't tonight, but thank you. ... Where's Wally?"

"Resting," Mr Suru said unsurely. "He's - the air, it's too thick and sooty, and it's getting worse. The trip to the cemetery...He's been coughing all day."

May knew she didn't need any more heartbreak filed away in images and sounds, a constant mental barrage.

"I wish him health," she said respectfully, bidding Mr Suru a good night.

...

The line in front of the hospital had dispersed to either Verdanturf or Mauville, but there was still a ranger standing at the doors that tried to deny May entrance until she said she was just visiting a friend.

There were people sleeping in the waiting room. May walked the halls, crossed only by a few doctors and nurses rushing to patients' sides.

She had gotten a text from Prof Birch saying where he was sleeping - a few offices had been rearranged for in-house accommodations for the most needed doctors. However as May reached the designated hall she saw her dad sleeping on a couch in one of those rabuta-planted alcoves. She ran over and gave him a long hug. Not even a thunderbolt from the sky pillar pokemon could wake her dad.

She smelled smoke all of a sudden, interrupting her musings of where she should sleep. Alarmed, she followed her nose down the hall to a room at the corner. Smoke was trailing out from under the door. When there was no response to her knocking she turned the handle and shoved her body weight against it. It didn't give. Panicked, she released her numel and with some ramming and fire blasts she managed to bust into the dark room - there was water damage to the walls and the medical equipment had been cleared to one side except for one bed with rumpled sheets, flaming sheets. Light poured from the bathroom door and May rushed in to grab water, swooping up a pail and blasting it full under the tap, double taking at - Brendan whose eyes were wide and he was- she didn't have time, she ran out and dumped the bucket on the flames which were traveling to the stock of equipment along the other wall. She repeated the process.

Finally it was only smouldering. May coughed on the smoke. It was better than soot at any rate. Her nose still felt thick with the volcano's fumes.

She went back to the bathroom, her heart hammering. Brendan was slumped against one wall, eyes wide, missing his glasses, hyperventilating.

"Brendan-!_ Your pants_!" May grabbed more water and flung them on his burning pant legs. That seemed to bring him out of his trance and he lost his balance as he tried to step forward, shooting out a wave of flames from his torso that singed May as she grabbed his hand and steadied him. He tore away, eyes still wide in fear, and braced himself against the sink counter, streaming fire from his hands at May. She screamed and instinctively dropped, covering her head as the heat rushed over her, dusting her in soot.

"STOP!" she screamed at Brendan as he lunged wildly at her, fiery energy rippling around his figure. She knocked him back against the counter, hands around his forearms, locking him there. Again flames surged from his arms and she yanked her hands away in pain. Her eyes stung with tears and she shouldered him aside, cranking the cold water on and letting it run over her hands. "Ow, ow, ow," she said. "Ow. Ow." Her eyes streamed.

/

The Groudon and the aggron - he really couldn't tell which was which- surrounded him in a blur of bright, real light and rippling, echoing roars. No! NOOO! He was going to kill them, burn them, but instead the flames were scarring him and he was so alone and they had killed his dad, and he knew it was really Maxie and he tried to fight them- he did - but he couldn't. His inner ear spun. The dream wouldn't leave, the roars twisted his hearing and the flames whirled around him as he gasped for breath. Dad, dad! he cried helplessly but he knew Norman was dead and it really had happened. He was alone. He would die.

A stabbing pain sliced through his head and brought him, curled over and choking and retching, into reality. There was yellow tile and it was bright. He was so desperately alone and pain tore through his mind. He was grasping at memories of Norman, which were real, which weren't. Oh Arceus, he needed the photo albums again. But they were gone, lost in the hurricane and storm. Everything he knew of his dad would whirl away in scornful bits and pieces without a living representation to remind him, thanks to this broken brain-

He was standing. Someone was holding him up over the sink. He dry heaved and shook.

When he felt somewhat certain that he was conscious and the sickness deep in him wasn't simply a nightmare, he shakily stepped back, grabbing onto the handicap rail bolted into the wall, checking subconsciously to make sure his toque was still on. And he saw May. She was looking at him in a tangle of emotions he couldn't differentiate.

Arceus. So he wasn't alone.

He smelled smoke. Oh.

Oh.

It had been him. Everything was him, because of him.

Panting, he looked at May until she spoke in a somewhat small voice.

"Was it a nightmare?"

Brendan nodded and shook and nodded his head. "That's how I-I burned our house down," he said in an even smaller kind of voice. "It's - I - dreams-"

"Don't you take medication or something?"

"It doesn't work! It can't make me remember!" Brendan yelled.

"You were attacking me," May said.

Brendan's stomach turned more as he saw the layer of soot gracing her and she showed him her angry red palms. "Arceus..." he murmured and stumbled to the cupboard in the corner, finding a burn paste. He was shaking too badly to open it so May self-applied it. He sat down on the toilet seat.

"You're wearing your toque," May said.

"Yes."

It was silent save for May rubbing the paste on her hands. She placed Swell's pokeball on the counter. "So how do we stop this?" she said.

"Can't," Brendan said.

"Why?"

"Most nights. For almost half my life. Just not as damn terrifying. And usually-at least,- Dad's there," Brendan said bitterly.

"You should sleep."

Brendan looked at her. "Ok."

She left.

...

The next day and the Commonhouse stood mocking and silent, at least to the crowd filling up the streets outside.

The waiting people festered with mistrust. The three Magmas encouraged it. A rally of the most desperate set up shop on the wide flight of stairs leading to the entrance.

No more food had arrived; those not gathered in front of the Commonhouse were ransacking what was left to ransack in Hoenn's central city, as more people trickled in: people there had been no room for in Fortree, survivors from Oldale and those wanting to escape the thick ash in Lavaridge and Rustoboro, people from Mossdeep and Lilycove with no power.

While a rebellion was in the making, Courtney waited in the apartment, trying to puzzle out what to do next; Maxie was out for the remainder of the day running various... errands. He wouldn't answer his Nav.

The best she could do, Courtney decided, was to keep an eye on the trainer with powers like Maxie's. And that meant she would have to have an excuse to be at the hospital.

They needed helping hands. They took the girl in plain clothes and put her to running errands immediately.

...

The lunch break in the Commonhouse at 12 noon was taunting. Steven barely had time to eat from the café's brave last catering stand and he couldn't focus on his food.

Time stodged on as the Mainland consolidated their support. The strongest blow was when permission from the PM of the Mainland came through Wells.

Wattson had lapsed into silence. It was 6 p.m. and the chair Steven sat in felt like a wooden vice. The other Commonhouse members were mostly all swayed. Only a few of Mauville's panel held out.

Steven navigated through every little facet of the proposal. He bought himself - bought Hoenn -time; he asked stupid questions he knew the answers to in some kind of foolish hope. Would the Hoennites be sent to Johto? Of course not! That region was sealed off. Would they make a new region? Nooooo! Most would be sent to Sinnoh, some back to the Mainland-which was quite an unheard-of thing, but although politically phrased, Steven understood that only the most useful and youthful would be the ones allowed to live on in a region with pokemon.

Is the Mainland going to conserve Hoenn after the land is vacated? No way! Pokemon have no intrinsic value to the Mainland. Wells derided him for suggesting that all of the species living in Hoenn could be saved, and Steven doubted the Mainland would even try.

Steven asked all these things and Wells had to answer because he needed the Champion's signature. But inside Steven was trying unsuccessfully to staunch the flow of self-centered concerns. I'm one of the three champions. It's my dream job. It's who I am. I've worked to get here and I've worked to stay here and you'll take that all from me and doom me to possibly never having a pokemon or battling again? And Steven realized it would be so for other trainers, and it made him furious, but he kept asking questions.

At 8:30 Wells was very narrowly scraping by the definition of insulting Steven- and Steven was unabashedly assaulting the Mainland's name-and so Wells stood to make his final proclamation.

"Your people are dying and suffering while we debate," Wells stated like it wasn't his problem. "The Mainland knows this. And the Mainland will take steps to save Hoenn. We will begin tomorrow."

Steven should have known Wells had already called in the Mainland forces.

And that was the end decision. Everyone stiffly filed out to go to their rooms, but Steven just paced the hallway. He was so angry it took all his energy to place a foot calmly in front of the other, and that was why he was doing it.

Wells put a hand on the Champion's shoulder. Strange natural-coloured hair, strange jeans, strange accent.

"You leave this to us, Stone," the Mainland rep said. "Where's your trainer card?"

Steven withheld it.

"Come on, Stone. Not any of your gyms or your league are running. Why pretend they ever will again?" Well's derogatory phrasing of 'gyms' and 'league' made Steven burn.

The Champion turned on his heel and marched away but Wells snapped his fingers - an extremely rude thing to do in Hoenn - and several of the guards that had come with the building crew jogged out of the doors in the hall, wearing medium-armoured black suits. Two grabbed Steven and the other two forced him back against the stone-laid wall as Wells strutted over. Steven forced himself to relax.

"Trainer card?" Wells beckoned. The two guards let up on him but Steven jerked out of their grip, elbowing one in the face and went at Wells, landing a fist in the taller man's cheek. Wells stumbled back a little and Steven wound up and kicked him backward and then lunged at him again with a fist but the guards grabbed him again. One helped Wells up as Steven panted.

The Mainland rep held a hand to his reddening cheek and nodded sharply at the guards who started to search Steven. As they reached for his masterball pocket, the Champion said,

"It's inside my jacket, left side."

The guards paused and one looked there, taking out the card which was slightly wider than standard issue Mainland cards. Wells snatched it, peeled back the protective plastic coating, withdrew a sharpie from his pocket, and blacked out Steven's name and ID in thick black lines. He tossed it on the ground.

"Take him to a room and make sure he's secure," Wells said. "His violent act has deemed him an aggressive risk."

The men hauled the Champion away.

Steven didn't even want to pick up his desolate trainer's card. He hung in the guards' grip and wished he could burn it.

...

May and Brendan didn't talk much that day. Brendan and his mom talked and he suggested they ask if the Surus could shelter them. May instead went to get Shelley from the Surus and she managed to get a bit of conversation out of the former Aqua. The girls went around Mauville and discovered the stagnant, brooding crowd - and they recognized the Magma grunts talking with some of the older Mauville residents.

"What are they trying to do? Are they actually going to help Mauville?" Shelley mused as they zigzagged along the streets, trying to find a place to eat.

"I thought that the Mainland was going to help all of Hoenn, but I see why everyone's angry," May said, scrolling through her Nav.

"It's taking way too long."

May introduced Shelley to Prof Birch back at the hospital. They talked in private and Shelley said she was in for taking Magma out. Prof Birch was relieved and saddened to hear of Aqua's demise. Mrs Mayer and Brendan came up in the conversation and Shelley interrupted.

"You know that kid?!" she exclaimed. Although May saw Shelley'd had her nose in the air for awhile the admin truly did seem set on getting back at her kidnappers. And she needed all the help she could get.

"Yes...?" both father and daughter trailed.

"Here's how you get Magma: use him as bait. If you get him on the news, Maxie will come after him." Shelley tossed her hair behind a shoulder.

"But we don't have anyone to come after him," May sighed, crossing her arms, mirroring Shelley's stance.

"You say Maxie eliminated most of his own team, though-" Professor Birch started.

"He makes up for them," Shelley cut him off.

They stood in silence before Prof Birch shook his head. "I might have to see this from Brendan... Before I believe it," he said, apologetically almost to May.

"I hope he's still sleeping," May said. "I don't know. Maybe we have a fighting chance. It's us three and Wallace, and Brendan if he can take it..."

Shelley shook her head. "The goons hanging around outside of the building in Mauville? They killed their fellow teammates just for their stuff."

"Ok, ok," May said, slowly circuiting the office. "To get more people on our side, we need to prove Magma's intent. The hospital break-in is on the record but it's nowhere near to first priority. We need to snoop around, but Magma moved their base... Argh! We can't do anything!"

"Use Brendan as bait. Get Maxie or Courtney lured in, and we can take them and get some kind of proof. I'm gone for now. Text me if you need me." Shelley finger-waved goodbye and trotted out. The door swung shut with a click.

"I would say go ahead, but using Brendan as bait-" Prof Birch started. "You might even find there is no proof."

"I know, I know." May clawed at her braided pigtails. "And what's happening in the Commonhouse? People are dying, the death toll is way up, there's fever and starvation in other towns! The Mainland should at least be handling the people, if they're not chasing criminals!"

"I know, May," Prof Birch said, enfolding her in a hug. "I'll go and see how Miranda is planning to ride this out. Let me know if you see Brendan, alright, sweetie?"

They agreed to meet back for supper and each went their own way.

...

Shelley strutted through the hospital. She did have a certain confident swing to her hips when she knew she looked good, or when she thought there was a good chance she did. However a face of someone passing her stopped her in her tracks. She whirled. Was it that brat Courtney? She was about to yell and run after her but a doctor got in her way as she realized it would be better to follow quietly. The redhead walked as quietly as she could in her shoes which had a bit of a hard plastic wedge on them.

...

May got outside. There were a few tents set up by the hospital and people lay on light cots. There wasn't enough room inside.

She took the path into the woods and followed the trail for twenty minutes, climbing over thick ancient trunks steady in her way and taking detours around misshapen, giant slanted throes of trees nearly flattened but not quite.

Scared pokemon like marill and zigzagoon chittered and scampered past her or away from her. She didn't feel like training her pokemon. The wild pokemon were probably having just as hard a time as the humans; she knew already the daycare had become a vet clinic of sorts. Her guess was confirmed when she passed a stinking carcass of a zigzagoon crushed under an ancient trunk. Although some pokemon lived completely off energy, many didn't, and taillow were good scavengers.

The air was thick with soot and it was quiet except for the wailing cries of distressed pokemon.

She found Brendan eventually with the help of her ears. He was sitting on a fallen pinen tree, back to her. Wearing his orange-blocked black windbreaker. Branches with the round pointy pinen leaves were scattered around and leaning old trunks partially shaded him. May had the instinct to get to business but she instead stepped over the log and sat a comfortable distance from him.

"I talked with Shelley," May said. "She's with us. But she wants to use you as bait. She said Maxie would go after you."

Brendan glanced at her. His elbows rested on his knees. "He would, I guess." He returned his gaze ahead and slightly down. May felt a bit awkward, just for her part. She was torn between bugging him about getting Magma and leaving him in peace to grieve.

"Look, I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone-" she said as she got up. Brendan jerked to his feet.

"No," he said, half extending a hand to her. She jumped a little but no flames burst forth. "We have to get Maxie."

"Really, Brendan-" May said, pained, because she could see he really did want to be alone.

"No," he said, sitting slowly back down like he was teaching May how to. She followed his lead. No, he did want to be alone, but maybe for once he'd realized this had to be dealt with, no matter what he wanted to do- at such a time when what he wanted to do was actually the best thing for him- "So, bait. How?" Brendan looked at her.

"Well, your powers. I guess. Are they powers? When did you get them and do you think Swampert maybe somehow gave them to you?" May spilled out.

"Powers? I guess. My powers. The first time was when I burned down our house. And why Swampert?"

"That's the one they took, right?"

"They took my nuzleaf before that."

"Oh. Do Xense and Swampert have something in common?"

Brendan shook his head. "No clue where Maxie is?"

"No but his three grunts are with the mob waiting to happen outside the Commonhouse. Shelley says he killed off Aqua and most of his team."

Brendan's expression twisted. "Why?"

"I think he needed a few to trust, he finished the grunt work-doing something with the stones at the battle. He's obviously planning something, but," May said, standing and clenching her fists in frustration. She kicked around the scattered epin branches.

"I think he used the stone to absorb the Kyogre's energy," Brendan said suddenly.

"Why?" May turned to him.

"I felt it. A huge energy transfer. When the Kyogre went down. That's what lead me to Maxie, but he couldn't just take all the XP from the Kyogre, I mean he'd have to have something-" Brendan scratched at his toque.

"Maybe he did that with the Groudon too!" May said excitedly. "Has that happened to you? Stone and big pokemon thing?"

"No."

So it wasn't that that had given Maxie powers. It must be something to do with Brendan's pokemon.

"You know, they did give Xense back to me. Maybe it was Swampert who had something special," Brendan said.

"Yeah," May agreed. "Hey. How about we train?"

"I don't want to train," Brendan said sourly. "There's nothing to train on."

"I mean train you," May said as she whipped out Gallade. The psychic type landed lightly on the uneven ground, swinging the blades on its arms back and forth.

"Whoa! No, no not yet!"

/

"Well we gotta find out what level you are. Gallade's..." May clipped her stat clip on her short sleeve sweater- "... 42." She looked at her hands, wrapped in gauze. Brendan cringed inwardly. Better I attack her pokemon than her.

"How do I know whose speed is higher?" Brendan said, jumping on the log and back over it, but Gallade threw a night slash attack at him. The dark ripple knifed into him, flashing that brief, strange pain through him.

"Was that Ok?" May called from behind his opponent.

"Just fine," Brendan said, and summoned a thunderbolt attack. The lightning streaks arced through the ashy air and Gallade absorbed the crackling energy. Brendan panted and naturally tried to dodge Gallade's next night slash but it hit him as he ducked. Right. Accuracy was based on stats. Getting more steady on his feet, Brendan retaliated with another thunderbolt attack. They went back and forth, energy whistling and cracking through the clearing. It was odd, standing there taking blows, squelching the fight or flight drive.

If I faint, I faint, Brendan assumed as the pain from the next night slash made him wince a little. This was what his pokemon went through while battling for him?

"Just feed me a revive if I faint," Brendan yelled over the light and electric snapping of his next thunderbolt attack. He could feel the energy building and storing as small amounts were transferred, like the intermittent stages of a chemical reaction. The winner would claim the chips being played now.

The next night slash and not any unusual pain came, but Brendan fainted.

...

He was back on his feet and drawing in sooty air.

"Does it hurt?" May was asking him.

"Not much at all," he told her. Gallade was muttering, focused, jumping from one leg to the other. He could taste earthy sawdust in the back of his throat. Must be the revive. "Yep, now do I get to KO Gallade?"

"Sure," May said. She paused as she retreated to her side. "Wait-do you think pokemon feel pain when battling?"

"Maybe," Brendan panted. "I don't know."

They trained for a couple hours more. By the end the attacks did actually hurt, and with a ice beam from May's glalie they discovered that Brendan couldn't properly absorb transenergy attacks.

They headed back to the hospital together, no words passed between them. It was odd, all this. Brendan found himself wondering if he'd wake up or something childish like that. He had to talk to his mom before he decided to be any kind of bait. Because he wanted to be. He needed to get Maxie.

...

Shelley had been involved in an altercation at the hospital and luckily Prof Birch had bailed her out. At a sparse, rationed dinner, she told everyone there including Brendan (who didn't look at her once) that it had been Courtney. "I think Maxie's for sure looking for Brendan," she said to Professor Birch and Brendan's mom, who didn't look to be doing so well. May and the adults were looking from Shelley to Brendan and wondering why he was being such a recluse.

"Could a walk in the forest be good?" Brendan said to mostly May and her dad.

"No!" Mrs Mayer almost shouted.

"Someone has to!" Brendan returned. Everyone else flinched. Brendan turned back to picking at his meagre portion of linoone side with rabuta and old cheese sauce.

"We'll stay close," May said quietly. "Magma only has a few members now."

"That's what this woman says," Mrs Mayer said, referring to Shelley.

"I know the most of all of you," Shelley said quite assuredly and pompously.

"Yeah, you stood there while Maxie killed Swampert and my dad," Brendan said, putting down his cutlery and looking at her.

"Just your Swampert! And Maxie never told me about killing anyone, I was his prisoner!"

Brendan got up from the table and pushed through the crowded café until he was out of sight. He wanted to get angry and do more than make snide remarks. Snide remarks were a tactic of his much disused lately. They didn't hold any daring balance between threat and joke anymore. Nothing was a joke. His anger was all fire and he couldn't release it. Not here.

/

Mrs Mayer left shortly after Brendan did and Wallace, returning sadly from Rustoboro, joined them. There was no supper left for him but he mildly accepted the fact. Shelley gaped for a moment while Wallace was brought up to speed.

"You're Sootopolis' gym leader, aren't you?" she exclaimed.

"If you haven't noticed, Sootopolis is gone," Wallace returned, a sharpness to his tone. The hair did give it away, even though he wore plain clothes, a stretchy navy blue long sleeve and some light gray slacks.

The company, divided, dispersed. May and her dad took Shelley to the Surus. There was room in the hospital offices for Mrs Mayer and her son. No one asked what Wallace was doing.

"I'll be surprised if we do something tomorrow," Shelley said imperiously to the Birches as they accepted the invitation to stay as well. "I thought you all were so set on catching Maxie. But I seem to be the only one with any drive at all." She closed the door and secluded herself in the cozy room, patchworked quilt, wooden dresser drawers carved with jirachi symbols. There was a little incense altar nailed into the wall.

She'd already told Courtney at the hospital that she was in cahoots with the trainer and his family and she'd get Brendan to Maxie if Magma's leader would get her the wyvern pokemon back. Yes. Exactly. And then she'd let Brendan's family go rescue him and she could kill Maxie, or maybe maim him. Who was she kidding, she couldn't kill a man. But maybe, part by part, that's what it would take to get satisfaction.


	63. Dr Aurus

Courtney got the message to Maxie the next morning at about 5 am, when he silently stepped into Manortric Apartments room 37. She thought he would take the offer, order her to go and find the masterball Shelley had said was in the Champion's possession, but Maxie just told her to go back to sleep with a little smile.

Courtney hesitated and then obeyed.

/

Maxie had no intention of negotiating with Shelley. He didn't negotiate as a rule. He preferred cheating. He had escaped the clutching mindset of _you get what you give_ not too long ago.

At any rate, the Mainland was planning their announcement for this morning. Maxie leaned against the counter and gazed out the window, north to the dark gray billows around Fallarbor area. So much tedious work to get here, where he was now. But he had more power than he'd planned for; both stones; he could feel the potential surging through him. Courtney was looking more and more as a surefire candidate. But he'd only risk it after he had command, after he had control of Hoenn.

No, he wouldn't be its king or Champion. But take control of the people and you have the country. Like in old Johto, team Rocket had gotten it all wrong, trying to take the government and then the people. The people will always stop you. Trainers will rise up. But have them on your side and the leaders and kings and prime ministers are within your grasp.

...

When Brendan got up Prof Birch met him and explained apologetically that someone had to stay at his side since Courtney had been spying on him here. He accepted the protective measure, but he wanted to go outside; go into Mauville even. May arrived with Shelley, and Brendan argued with them until they gave in and set out on the long path to Mauville through the layer of soot in the air, which seemed to have sunk lower to the ground.

Mrs Mayer attended them, but it was clear she was against her son's idea.

No one said much. Shelley lagged behind, glancing around. Prof Birch was distracted by the wildlife running free. May had Etz's pokeball in her hand as she walked a little behind Brendan. He still wore that toque.

Surreptitiously, Shelley snapped a photo of Brendan walking ahead of her and texted it to Maxie. Magma's leader wanted proof.

...

Steven wandered the Commonhouse's back corridors, an hour yet until everything reconvened. It was decided and Steven couldn't force himself to accept it. The outlined timeline was two to four weeks to successfully stabilize the population for transport. More helicopters had arrived earlier and Steven exited the Commonhouse through the back entrance to stand among the armoured, bug-like air vehicles, their four-pronged chopper blades criscrossing the sky above. I suppose I should get used to feeling small, Steven told himself, fighting down bitterness.

The man he'd privately summoned to the Commonhouse arrived, walking towards him on the pavement. The spare helicopter bay had been filled but the park surrounding the back of the Commonhouse had been relieved of its decorative trees courtesy of the hurricane, leaving more landing space.

"Wallace," Steven greeted his friend with a sigh. The slightly taller man nodded back, standing at a distance. He gave the Champion a quick update on the state of things, but Steven was the one with the real news.

"Maybe it is right, then," Steven said, clasping his hands behind his back and then wringing them and unclasping them, "with fever and no electricity and flooding and everything all going at once-" he made a swiping motion, "-that everything go at once."

"What has the Mainland done?" Wallace asked.

Steven cracked an ironic smile. "They're doing to me what I did, we did, to Sootopolis."

There was a pause.

"...Hoenn?" Wallace said. His words seemed to be swallowed by the air as soon as they were out.

"Yes. Hoenn. To Sinnoh, most of us, to the Mainland, all the old ones," Steven said. He watched Wallace blink a few times. The dark shirt his friend wore hung on his shoulders. He had dropped weight, that was sure, and not like he'd had much to drop in the first place.

"No more gym leading for us, then, no more League battling for you and Drake and Phoebe and...?"

"No. Cyn stays Champion of Sinnoh. Their gym leaders stay."

"We move in only to live and die?"

"Something like that," Steven said with a dark feeling.

"You could always go back to being a gemologist."

"And they won't let us take Hoenn-native pokemon with us," Steven almost retaliated.

"...what?" Wallace said, a spasm of something crossing his eyebrows and lips at last.

"No. Those that live in both regions, yes, those only in Hoenn, no." Steven shook his head. "I've bought all the time I can. What do I do, Wallace? What you did with Sootopolis?"

"Rescue as many as you can...? How long do we have?"

"Two to four weeks."

"Get all the gym leaders. Keep the League on for as long as you can. Run the league. Battle everyone who comes. Broadcast it. The last stand-"

The notion was like the dawn on Steven's frame of mind. "Yes, we'll get GT Hoenn there, we'll have a special addon to the Champion trainer card code-"

"-You'll have to somehow make up for the missing persons-"

"Yes." Steven forced his features to not crumple. Suddenly he didn't know if he wanted to do it without Glacia.

"Brawly, Flannery, Roxanne, Norman and Wattson are out. Wattson won't be able to open his gym, not with the Mainland so close. And I doubt many will travel to Mossdeep with the fever raging. And we don't have an eighth badge," Wallace summarized.

"That leaves your sister."

"She could do it."

"I know that. Honestly, the gym leaders remaining are too preoccupied, rightfully so, with their cities. But if we concentrate the efforts in the League, the Mainland won't bother us."

"Good idea."

Steven felt a little energy come back to him. So there was a fighting chance even if only to preserve himself for another few weeks. "We'll have an Elite three. No, Wallace - would you like to be the fourth Elite?" Steven offered.

"I can't," Wallace said rather quickly. "I-I'm a gym leader, not..."

"That's alright, it's fine - but hmmm." Steven drew closer to his friend. "Can I get you to gather pokemon representative of every gym leader? Their strongest one. It'll be the admittance exam, no matter how many badges you already have." He was excited.

"It might take a while," Wallace said with a little tilt of his head.

"No matter. I should get back in," Steven said. "Thank you."

Wallace's face took on somewhat of a painful sadness. "Of course," he said, tucking a stray strand of hair behind an ear. "Any way we can stay who we are. For a time."

Steven shook his spiky hair out and swiped it out of his face. "I wish we could fully reopen. I've been thinking, Wallace, all the time... Fighting the legendaries, it was a terrible danger-"

"Steven, take your own advice," Wallace said in a lilting tone. "Leaving the possibility of many being saved open, knowing not all would."

"But I believed they would," Steven enunciated, desperation leaking into his tone. "I thought everyone would escape unharmed! We were all powerful trainers and- I didn't expect the fatalities."

"Perhaps you couldn't," Wallace said. "Perhaps you are strong enough to know when to blind yourself."

Steven swallowed, looking to the side. "Well, it's done now," he said, a bit stiffly, employing his practiced skill of mentally closing up issues. "Thank you again."

Wallace nodded. Steven hesitated and then turned and left. He wondered if Wallace's grey eyes were watching him as he walked away, or if he left his gaze to the ground in despair. There was a light breeze and he knew it was tossing Wallace's tangled locks halfheartedly. _Control yourself, Steven. Whatever the people do now, you've decided. No faltering, no fainting. _

...

Wallace walked away slowly. There was a tear tracing down his cheek.

...

Brendan and his posse of guards entered Mauville and continued through its mostly deserted streets, drawn toward the concentrated crowd by the Commonhouse. Mrs Mayer stopped once or twice but started into motion after her son as if giving up on managing him.

Shelley, still lagging, doubted Maxie would show up now. But she couldn't think of a way to avoid Magma until they had a deal; she'd already tried voicing concerns but Brendan marched on.

/

As the street opened up and the group circled around a fallen light post, they came upon the crowd numbering in the thousands. It extended through the greenspace in front of the Commonhouse and spilled onto the streets and up the government building's stairs. The hushed collective hubbub of many voices astonished the small group for a moment, the sheer sight of so many people all in one place.

"Magma's got to be here," Brendan said, starting forward, but a voice from behind made him whirl: someone dressed in dark colours he thought he recognized. A Magma? Whoever it was, his one arm was wrapped in a heavy bandage and he didn't look all that threatening.

"You're Brendan Mayer?" the man said. He must've been not older than 25. He was a Magma, Brendan remembered him from the battle. He sounded cocky and Brendan didn't like it.

"Yeah, what do you want?" There was a surge in volume from the conglomeration now at his back as May moved in front of him, a pokeball in each hand. Prof Birch held Mrs Mayer steady.

"We'd like to talk with you."

Shelley turned back around and the small group followed her lead. Another faintly familiar face hemmed them in. Another Magma.

"About what?" Brendan said as May glanced back at him. This could be what they needed. They could probably overpower two grunts, even if they were tough like Shelley said.

"A sensitive issue pertaining to Hoenn's safety," the original Magma with the hurt arm said.

"You're Magma members aren't you?" gasped Mrs Mayer all of a sudden, breaking free from Prof Birch, running up to the Magma, getting in his face. "I want you to go. Now," she said clearly, her voice laden with more intense emotion than Brendan had ever heard. The Magma backed away.

"Ma'am. I believe we can explain some things-"

Brendan knew they had to get evidence. But he hadn't expected the raw urge to attack them on sight and he held himself forcefully still, kept himself from sending energy streaming out of him.

"You cannot explain my husband's death!" Mrs Mayer half-sighed, half-exclaimed, as the crowd's noise rose as well.

"We can talk in the Pokemart just down this street," the Magma offered, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "Just me and the kid. My friend here can keep you company while you wait."

May released the two pokeballs she held with an exclamation. Etz and Gallade materialized from the streams of energy. The Magma cowered as the sceptile grew blades of honed green energy out of its arms and a menacing black aura hovered around Gallade, but May whirled and sent her pokemon rushing back toward the other Magma. Brendan jumped as both May's pokemon aggressively fired off their attacks and harassed the Magma behind them, tearing the pokeball belts off the man's shoulders.

"He'll keep us company alright," May said, beckoning her pokemon to follow as she went in the direction that the other Magma had indicated.

/

As Brendan jogged up to May and Prof Birch tugged Mrs Mayer off to the side so they could resume following at a safe distance, Shelley noticed the Magma with the injured arm wiggle an eyebrow questioningly at the other as the sceptile and gallade scratched and sniped at him. The older one nodded irritatedly back at the Magma in the lead, shielding his eyes from the sceptile's ferocious snapping beak. So what was this? Deal or no deal? Shelley jogged along uncertainly, waiting for one of them to mention something secretively. The crowd roared behind them but none of the group took notice.

...

"So little brains," Maxie murmured, standing with the crowd's leaders at the front of the mob. He deleted the picture Shelley had texted him of Brendan walking on the path that led to Mauville, the daycare visible in the corner. It was quite obvious they were heading into Mauville from the west. He could work with that. He was working with that quite well.

Courtney stood off to the side and the handful of men who had received and accepted Maxie stopped talking and focused on the delegation gathering on the steps of the Commonhouse. Maxie turned his attention that way as well. Mainland workers pushed the crowd encamped on the stairway back. Maxie held up a clear, thin set of binocular lenses to his vision and steadied them. He had gotten his grunts to promise the citizens in rough command of this mob that Magma's leader would show up and join them eventually. And when he had, they received him with open arms. He told them of his experience and previous involvement with the League and how it had persuaded him that, sadly, the people of Hoenn needed to rise up against authority if they were to sustain themselves in this crisis.

There were several people from the Mainland and the crowd collectively burst out in gasps and exclamations when the Champion stepped out in his signature purple zigzagged suit. As Wattson joined him there was a smatter of applause which seemed like it was going to crescendo but died away. None of the leaders gathered with Maxie applauded.

A Mainland man in jeans held a megaphone to his mouth and a paper in the other hand as the line of Mainland workers jostled the eager crowd back. Maxie scrutinized the Champion's face. Steven was good at keeping his appearance level, watertight, Maxie would give him that.

"Attention Mauville and Hoenn," said the man in an official tone. Hoenn TV and GT Hoenn were both filming; if the broadcasting network got back online anytime soon they would need the material. "On authority of.." And he listed various Mainland authorities with brief mention of the League, "... a decision has been reached to rescue and conserve Hoenn's population and resources."

"Isn't the population included in resources, to the Mainland?" Maxie leaned over and smirked to one of the leaders, a prominent coordinator named Erick. The crowd shuffled hungrily, manic for knowledge. The man went on explaining timeframes and the things people were supposed to do along with return to their home cities. Maxie checked his Nav for the time, and the gray-tinted sky.

"...and so therefore, please stand by in your cities to be called within the time period designated-"

The crowd cut him off.

"What?!"

"We could all die within two weeks!"

"Stand by?! I have family!"

"Quiet," said the man with the megaphone and waited impatiently. He started speaking and everyone hushed up. "... you will be transported to either the Mainland or Sinnoh."

This sunk in and then confusion exploded. The man with the megaphone had to wait a good minute before he was heard. "If you comply with the guidelines your city panels will post. This is a generous move by the Mainland to save you. We hope all will proceed with order -"

The Mainland workers bunched together to prevent the people on the stairs from rioting up to meet them.

"We - we have to leave Hoenn?"

"This is insane!"

"I'm not going to the freaking Mainland!"

The man with the megaphone jumped back as the rioters shoved and fisted away at his protective force.

"It will be a permanent-" the Mainland man got out, and then was blocked off as the crowd's angered shouts made Maxie's ears ring. He looked up again; there was a blot of bright blue against the gray film of the sky, circling down. Good. Maxie leaned over to Erick and said in his ear (as a whisper would not be heard),

"Wonder what our Champion thinks of all of this."

Maxie read the expressions around him as Erick processed that question and then started yelling it on, passing it onward through hateful mouths. So the Mainland thought they could handle every incensed, at-their-limits with nothing left to lose Hoennite? Oh, they could squish them all, but they wouldn't because that was too big a loss.

Soon the crowd surged with a chant for Hoenn's Champion to answer to this decision. The Mainland crew were struggling to open the doors and get back inside, but Magma Stan had put a little locking design on the doors from inside and Maxie activated it from his Nav. The man with the megaphone now went red yelling at his workers to keep the crowd at bay.

...

"Like too many fish in an old, run down net," Drake murmured sadly to himself over his last bottle of rum as the networks flickered back on for a few moments and all of Hoenn saw the conflict going on.

...

Steven took stock of the fact that the doors behind him wouldn't allow him refuge from the crowd and so he took Wells' megaphone and tried to tell his people to stand back, but they kept battering at the Mainland workers until they forced a way through and poured up the stairs to stand right before Steven, not one look of friendliness or even pity on any one of the faces.

"Please, friends-" Steven started through the megaphone, picking up snatches of the insults or questions they threw at him. It nearly overpowered his ability to think, the sheer volume. He stood there for he didn't know how long trying to start saying something and being cut off until the riot's energy dipped a little, and the people at the front were done attacking and ready to defend. Steven sighed. The Mainlanders were all working frantically at the huge double doors, crafted with Mainland insignia and also Hoenn's crest.

"Friends, I regret this situation, deeply," Steven said, each word paining him as several people hurled lone rebuttals. He flinched but only inwardly. "I love Hoenn. I love its environment, its pokemon, and..." He let his gaze wander the ash-tinted skies over the broken skyscrapers and apartment buildings, as he wondered if he really did want to be on the Mainland's side. He didn't. But he had to be, it was the best solution. It would at least give the Hoennites an extension on life. "...I know it would be hard to live without the land and companions we have depended on." He took a breath. "But we are at the end of our resources!" He was almost pleading. "There's fever and weather damage and Mt Chimney is active, and we cannot ride this ourselves! We must resolve-we must take the help we can get-"

That was as far as Steven got. The mob, outraged, went into attack again, the bitter attack of betrayal. Debris was hurled at Steven and he blocked his face as bits of buildings went clashing and crashing into the doors behind him.

"You're the Champion! You're supposed to stand for pokemon!"

"You're gonna let them take everything we have left away?!"

"He is! He's just sucking up to them-"

"Money loving Mainlander at heart huh!"

"You're not our Champion! You deserve to die, not all of us!"

"Our pokemon! Our land!"

"Yeah!"

"Our pokemon, our land" began to thickly fill the air with its repetitions and Steven feared he really would be killed as the doors remained fastened shut and debris struck his protective arm and his head and legs and shoulders but suddenly the crowd's noise level dropped by a notch and Steven lowered his guard in surprise.

Winona and Tate of Mossdeep and Roxanne and Juan of Lilytree stood in front of him. Why were they here? Their cities needed them-

"Steven," Winona said, harsh, harsh as the plunge he'd taken from Champion down to traitor. She took the couple steps separating them and jerked his red cravat out of his suit and tossed it behind her. The crowd separated to let it land on the stairs. She stepped back.

"Liza has been taken by the fever, Steven," Tate said. Tate and Liza were special twins. They had physical disabilities but no mental ones. "We don't have much left. But you choose that the Mainland takes it all away instead of helping us reclaim it."

"They-" Steven started.

"We're not even settled. We're overcrowding Fortree, and those forced outside in tents had to take on the storm."

"From your battle," Roxanne said in her high voice, sounding tired. She shook her head a little. "Maybe it got rid of the legendaries, but is all this damage really worth it?"

"Without removing the Groudon and the Kyogre, the storms would surely have increased to the point that getting close to them would be impossible-"

"Regardless what might have happened, if you'd chosen euthanasia for both the ancients, Brawly and Glacia could still be alive," Winona said.

Steven knew he was beaten, even with Wattson at least on his side, standing behind him, but he still met Winona's gaze with a look that said, you disobeyed orders.

"Trainer's card?" Winona held out her hand.

"Mainland took it," Steven said.

"Well," Winona said shortly and quietly. "They did something right."

As the gym leaders stepped apart to make way for more people coming up the stairs, she whispered at him,

"And the dioxin was Wallace's idea."

Steven had no time to react to that because a few familiar faces from pokemon contests and news syndicates spread around him, at their center a man with long slicked back red hair, who looked at Steven impassively as he took the megaphone and then turned to face the crowd.

"This man has betrayed Hoenn!" he shouted and the mob roared along. "He would let the Mainland take our land! Our pokemon!" The mob kept up wild assent. "He's no longer our Champion!"

The mob writhed with decibels for a long few seconds before quieting.

"And now, we must move against the Mainland! Because they will rip us from our home and keep us slaves wherever they choose to put us!"

The man turned back to Steven. Steven's pulse pounded and he could barely make sense of this man in front of him, whom he recognized, whom he knew from oh a long time ago-

"Run while you can," Dr Aurus said, touching something on his phone.

The Mainlanders got the doors open and pounded inside, and Steven had no choice but to follow as Dr Aurus stood still and the mob jostled past him and the gym leaders in hot pursuit of the Mainlanders, carrying weapons made from the broken bones of their crippled city, their pokemon at their heels.

/

Maxie nodded to all the gym leaders, looking grave. They had a meeting time planned in Mauville for later. They had to move fast.

For now, Maxie released his Salamence, which sent the crowd scattering at the top of the stairs. With the huge dragon pokemon backing him, he marched into the Commonhouse.

...

Shelley had just found out this wasn't her proposed deal at all, as Remi talked with Brendan inside the Pokemart. She had gone in as a guard and camerawoman while May watched Marshal outside, but Remi had given her a rude gesture when she mentioned a masterball.

"You don't have anything good to say," Brendan told the Magma. "There's no excuse you can make." They had been arguing for a while now, and Remi was making no attempt to reconcile, and even seemed to be vaguely insulting Brendan with some comments.

"We don't make excuses, no no," Remi said. "Not at Magma. We needed your pokemon, and Ld Norman's death, a bit of a complication-"

"Why did you need my pokemon?" Brendan interjected, while Shelley dug in her deep pockets for her crawdaunt's pokeball.

"Master's orders, I mean he's working for the good of Hoenn, the League and all-"

"Why does Hoenn need your goodness?"

"It can get all it can now," blustered Remi, "I mean this storm-"

"Which you caused!"

"Hey we never knew it would cause the storm, and Aqua-"

"Aqua, you killed them all," Brendan interjected. Remi looked surprised. "Right?" he said, turning to Shelley.

"Yeah," Shelley said, "Go Crawdaunt!" She released the crab pokemon. "I'm done here! Grab him!" The crab pokemon obediently scuttled over and swept Remi's legs out from under him by gripping one in each of its heavy claws. The Magma landed with a yowl, unwilling to brace himself with his injured arm. "Where's your leader?" Shelley demanded, marching over him as Crawdaunt held the shrimpy kid pinned.

"We don't need that," Brendan told her.

"Where's Maxie?" Shelley planted a heel in Remi's back.

"Ow! Owwwww! What time s'it?"

"Way later than when we got in here. Come on, Shelley," Brendan said in disgust. "He's not telling us anything. Actually, just keep him tied up for a sec." Brendan jogged out, pushing open the automatic doors.

"Ahahaha! Ouch!" Remi gasped under Crawdaunt's pincers and Shelley's heel. "That was the point!"

In came May with her sceptile and gallade dragging Marshal and hurling him on top of Remi. The older Magma tried to scramble up but Shelley simply placed her foot higher and pinned him as Gallade swiped at any attempt he made to raise his head.

Brendan and May began jointly hurling questions at the two Magmas and May tried to get her pokemon to be a little more convincing, but they weren't trained to be violent. Marshal and Remi remained in a babbling yelping pile of incoherence as Shelley ground her heel into Marshal and his weight pinned Remi.

"We're not getting anywhere," May said to Brendan. "They're not going to tell us anything."

"Maybe they don't know."

"Maybe you can't do anything about what we do know!" Marshal grunted.

"Yessaaah," wheezed Remi. Shelley kicked Marshal in the side and withdrew, arms folded.

"I don't want to go farther," May was telling Brendan. He just eyed the two Magmas.

"Yeah," Brendan said, circling the mostly raided aisles and coming up with some escape ropes, "let's see what our parents think." He proceeded to tie them together quite securely. They wriggled in protest.

Shelley glanced back at them as she followed the teenagers out. Maxie wasn't the type to entrust fools like these with his plans. They had seemed like pretty efficient fighters back at Magma's base, but not now.

/

Left alone, Remi and Marshal stopped struggling.

"And you denied all those Grepabarz wrappers were from ya," panted Chilinoan.

"We'll wait here for a while longer," Marshal grunted, resigning himself to this position.

"It's been long enough. Maxie said he needed 15."

"In case they come back, dimwit," Marshal said.

"Bet you just forgot your knife," Remi said. "Ow, my arm."

Marshal rewarded that remark with disgruntled silence.

...


	64. Use Your Pokemon

May and Brendan rushed out of the Pokemart, Shelley, Etz and Gallade in tow. Their parents were facing the crowd a few streets away, the roars of the mob indistinct at this distance but definitely audible.

"They're not saying anything, Mom," Brendan panted as he skidded to a stop beside his parent, but she and Prof Birch were listening intently.

"He would let the Mainland take our land! Our pokemon!" came through the air, amplified and echoing in the spacey streets.

"So it's all over...?" murmured Mrs Mayer as the crowd roared.

"What?!" May and Brendan both exclaimed. Prof Birch turned to the teens, scratching his head.

"It seems as if Hoenn is going to be no more."

Brendan lost all his focus on getting information out of the Magmas.

"What?! What are they going to do with us?"

Mrs Mayer just shook her head. Some citizens came dashing their way looking terrified, or oddly determined.

"They said to wait to be called, by Nav I suppose," Prof Birch said.

"Hahahaha! Suckers!" called Remi in a rather thin tone from behind them but they didn't turn around as Marshal tugged him along, dashing down a perpendicular avenue. The Magmas made their getaway.

"That was Maxie's voice," Brendan said to May as he glanced at her, referring to the slightly canned megaphone speech.

"And now, we must move against the Mainland!" the announcement continued. "Because they will rip us from our home and keep us slaves wherever they choose to put us!"

"It _is_ Maxie," May said to Brendan as the mob again tempted to block them out with its great exultations. Lots of people began rushing down the street toward and past the group of four, most with the same expression of fear or panic.

Brendan knew they were all thinking_, so that's his plan._ It seemed like a plan doomed to fail, but in the middle of the crisis, Magma's leader probably could gather a great number of supporters.

And Brendan himself? He couldn't believe that was the Mainland's plan, Steven would never approve that, would he? His Nav buzzed simultaneously with May's and their parents'. It was an automated message to Littleroot residents, orders from the Mainland ..._Seriously_? he thought weakly, letting his mom read the message instead, looking up as a thrumming overpowered the distant roar of the mob; a few helicopters crawled overhead, smoothly through the air, accompanied by a helicarrier.

"Where are they gonna land that thing?!" May exclaimed, leaving her phone in her bag. "We have got to go see, Dad!" The shadow of the hulking air vehicle cast them over for a good 30 seconds while it traveled eastward.

"May! We have to get in Verdanturf-" Prof Birch started once it was possible to be heard again.

"I'm not going to be ordered around by the Mainland while Magma creates an army!" May retaliated righteously. "I need to at least see what's going on!"

"I'll go with," Brendan called to Mrs Mayer as he dashed off after May and her two pokemon, pushing through the stream of people. For once it wasn't him idiotically running off somewhere, although he wanted to see the helicarrier too.

They came into a bit of breathing room on the turf of the greenspace in front of the Commonhouse where the crowd was splitting slowly, flowing either away from or into the government offices. The helicopters' racket was nearly overpowering and Brendan caught May's gaze as speaking would be ineffective. The Mainland phalanx was heading behind the Commonhouse and May nodded that way, taking off at a jog. He wondered if it was this safe to be close to a landing helicarrier and retinue as the wind currents picked up and they ran the width of the gleaming Commonhouse, coming upon the several helicopters lying silent and dormant, spread out over the designated launch pad and all of the parkland available before the border the street created. Standing behind the four-lane-wide pavement were office buildings somewhat destroyed by the cyclone.

The helicarrier was overpoweringly loud and hulkingly enormous. Brendan clapped his hands over his ears as both he and May scrambled back, the body of the huge armoured transport vehicle lowering ominously, longing to meet its vague shadow on the ground below.

There wasn't going to be enough room, Brendan thought as the hurricane-force winds tore at his cheeks and eyelids and both he and May and her pokemon held onto a lightpost. The helicopters around the helicarrier seemed like gnats next to a salamence. No, there wouldn't be enough room, as the vehicle slowly floated downwards like it was a sack of cement in slow motion.

Brendan closed his eyes as a thundering went through his ears, a lumbering echo of a noise much more catastrophic than his ears could handle. When he opened them, he saw the helicarrier had landed so it took over the street and crushed the row of office buildings - it was over a block long - and sat on the street beyond those buildings and its front tip and back end, slightly blunted with a few curved piloting windows, perched on the streets perpendicular.

It roosted silently on the dashed building remains, on disassembled metropolitan carcasses. Brendan looked down and saw debris had been swept outward and the guts of the office buildings were whirling around his feet as the several helicopters landed on top of the helicarrier.

This was what Maxie had just said he was up against.

You don't stand a damn chance, Brendan thought, struck in deep admiration and a bit of fear by the humongous vehicle, as people seeming as small as nicada started hopping out a few long stairs projected down out of its shielded sides.

The wind died down as the engines and blades of the Mainland vehicles grew still.

"Come on," he said to May.

"Yes," she breathed, and reluctantly followed him as Etz helped Gallade shakily pry its deathgrip off the lightpost. She glanced back all the way until the Commonhouse was again a barrier between them and the helicarrier and just the back end of it was visible behind the ornate government building.

Just like that, they became one of the throng fleeing through the city, away from the center of the power that would swallow their region.

...

Maxie let the crazed mob chase down the fleeing Mainlanders (and Steven) through the halls of the Commonhouse - they would be stopped eventually by the helicarrier that was coming in to land. Now was not the time to stage a battle. He let the crowd throng around him and made his inconspicuous way along the carpeted paths, peering in office by office until he reached the large forum room. As the mob rushed by outside he stepped in and walked up to the TV. It was still connected to a computer. Maxie connected his Nav, opening the app that connected him to Courtney. She hadn't mentioned Tabitha at all, so perhaps she was ready to shoulder the responsibilities as his second-in-command, his only second-in-command.

Foreign and primitive looking code began flashing across his Nav and he didn't touch it, casually surveying the room. Easy to tell the Mainlanders' side; cups and odd mugs sitting here and there. Mainlanders had a habit of drinking things every time they sat down. Maybe that's why many of them were quite portly, unlike most Hoennites.

Soon the text stopped and the app displayed a bunch of new icons. Maxie disconnected his Nav and headed back out; the mob was stirring, people at the back wanting to know what was the hold up and the people at the front likely being held up by the Mainland forces newly arrived.

He had to move fast. He strode at a brisk pace out of the Commonhouse, heading for the gym, where the leaders of the resistance would be meeting and waiting for him.

...

"We have to go," Mrs Mayer kept saying, in different ways, in the same tone.

May, Brendan, Mrs Mayer and Prof Birch had all received messages on their Navs that detailed them on where to go; as they were inhabitants of now uninhabitable Littleroot, they were told to go to Verdanturf and 'wait to be called to the designated passport office'.

"I'll go to the hospital, I have to help there, we'll have everyone coming for sure now," Brendan's mom said as her son helped her around a crater in the ashphalt caused by the toppled crests of the CNAS, Children's Network Animation Studio.

May knew a few people who were talented enough to go apprentice there. She could only guess they were now part of the thousands starting to straggle this way and that through the streets, half-aimless and trying to organize themselves. Every so often a little strand of people would burst in a blaze of frustration and anger and the other little groups around them would shudder away or catch the fever of unrest and grumble amongst themselves. She hated the shoulders brushing close, the disorder and the inefficiency. At least if they went where they were told, there would be some order. And Maxie was planning to destroy that attempt at order...? How could he defy the Mainland?

"Stay close," May told Gallade and Etz as they provided a buffer between the foursome and the wandering masses. Brendan was leading them, shouldering a way west. Eventually they found themselves among a stream of people going the same way and managed to walk two-by-two. May wondered at the seedling comradeship of those all summoned to a town. Not all would go where directed, but how many would? Few? Many? Would Maxie have ... a following?

Her dad held her arm with an important puff of air as they walked onward. May coughed a couple times in the soot-filled air.

"We'll stay with the Mayers," the Professor said as an aside to May.

"Yep," May said. She felt her dad give her arm a strong squeeze.

"Magma can't get away with defying the Mainland," he said.

"If Brendan and I are right about the stones and the legendaries..." May trailed, "then I guess it'll be put to the test, whether pokemon are stronger than the Mainland, or vice versa."

The professor shook his head. His beard was starting to get a but overgrown. "Sadly, the Mainland is."

They continued on. May's stomach grumbled. Hopefully the Mainland would feed the people it was uprooting.

...

Maxie was indeed last to arrive at Wattson's gym. He navigated through the posts which normally set up a shocking maze of electric barriers and joined all else around a table dragged onto the marked-off battlefield platform. Wattson was probably tied up elsewhere. The Mainland would probably come to shut the place down. It was an act of defiance, meeting here.

Erick, Winona, Tate, Juan, Roxanne, Courtney, his three remaining Magmas looking like their mission had gone well, and several important figures from Mauville and other cities of Hoenn were present.

Maxie connected his Nav to the TV that Courtney pushed toward him as he nodded at all present. Erick nodded back in greeting.

The air was tense. No one was at all sure about fighting the Mainland yet. Maxie ran through all the proof that Courtney had helped rip off the computer at the Commonhouse - blueprints and charts and pie graphs pointing to the fact that the Mainland was going to ditch any kind of large scale rehabilitation plan and instead transfer Hoenn's population, ignore the pokemon species, and redesign every individual's way of life.

"Everyone loses the land," Maxie concluded. "And our pokemon. We won't be allowed to keep any pokemon."

"How do you know?" Tate asked.

"Think about it," Erick said. "No pokemon on the Mainland. Do they want to challenge Sinnoh's ecosystem with foreign pokemon?"

"It would cost too much," someone from Slateport pointed out mockingly.

"Our lives might be saved," Maxie said admittingly, "but not our pokemon's. And that will kill a part of every trainer, every child who dreams of becoming a Champion one day, every old couple who still have their starters living with them, every newscaster and miner and scientist who is reaching the peak of his career at the side of his pokemon!"

The room rallied around his statement as he sat.

"They think pokemon are nothing," spat Juan in his accent.

"We won't have any purpose left," Roxanne whined vacantly.

"It's the deepest, most cold-hearted move..." muttered someone of Mauville.

Maxie glanced around the table. Everyone spoke but he and Courtney and Fortree's gym leader. She was an interesting one. They'd had a dialogue going for almost a month now. Maxie wasn't sure if she was against the Mainland and for the League or against both, now that Steven had made his stance clear. He had the feeling that the masked expression she wore was really no mask and instead a natural set. He wondered why and how that had come to be.

Eventually the negative chatter died and Winona spoke, her long purple hair behind a shoulder. She still had her aviator's cap on but the wings were torn and you could see a bad burn going down her neck, to her shoulder before her jumpsuit obscured it.

"Why don't we stand as the League? Isn't this all about the League versus the Mainland?" she questioned like she already had her opinion. Maxie wished he knew what it was. He would really like to know.

"We're not with Steven-"

"Yes why not?!"

"We can't, the Mainland destroyed the League, they're shutting it down!"

"Then we fight to keep it up?"

Maxie let everyone exhaust themselves arguing for a good five minutes, during which Winona glanced at him with expectancy.

"Do you think," Maxie said, standing up and waiting until most of the assembly had quieted, "that trying to set up the League again and so forcing the Mainland to go on the offensive will aid our own offensive plans? I don't like to see the League fall to shambles, but we can't accomplish anything by doubling the odds against ourselves." Maxie sat down as this sank in.

It took a while before everyone agreed and finally the meeting fe to the monolithic question of how does one go about preventing mass evacuation of one's desecrated homeland?

Erick reminded everyone it wasn't desecrated. Drawing supporters to the undamaged areas in concentrated would sustain them until, by force, the Mainland would provide them with some kind of aid.

"And we have pokemon," Erick concluded. "We are still strong! True, our pokemon are trained for battling, but think of how they could be used to aid us in crisis! We can show the Mainland! We've already started!"

Even Maxie let an "Indeed" escape him as the assembly assented.

Tallying the numbers who were willing to actively join the resistance yielded a good percentage of people from all the cities represented. 90% of Fortree's population was ready to do something against the impressive circumstances they were in, 70% of Mossdeep's crippled population, and many more from Staleport and Mauville. None who followed Mainland instruction would be harmed; after all they were just sheep led astray, all agreed. Maxie motioned they gather what they had of Mauville Verdanturf recruits and Erick sorted it out, texting and designating and summoning. Everyone, in addition, admitted they had pokemon who had been trained to do actual physical damage, not just trade energy between other pokemon. It was security, as far as being a gym leader, and a useful thing to have just in case. No one wanted to talk about actual blood and gore fighting, though, and so no one did.

Everyone paused for breath. The resources were assembled. Pokemon were ready to be used. The force was on its way.

But no one wanted to be the one to make the first move, you could tell by the hesitancy in the room.

Except Maxie. He waited for a moment, and then stood. The Mainlanders better get here soon. "We'll need a leader," he stated. People looked at one another and Erick rose.

It was awkward until there was a banging at the door and someone - many people - burst in.

"This building is no longer in operation, under Mainland protocol!" yelled a man in black armor wearing an asymmetrical visor. He held something in his hands. A gun?

A businessman emerged from the similarly-garbed armed Mainland forces.

"This is your last chance to obey orders," he said to the assembled rebels. "If you refuse to follow Mainland procedures, you will be designated as an enemy force."

Oh good, Maxie thought. He wasn't scared of guns, the chunky things every soldier held as dust flew around the entrance. "It's not just us," he said with a slanted smile, approaching the businessman, "we have..." He stopped in front of the man. "Pokemon."

"We're aware of that. I repeat, this is your last chance," the man threw back. The men behind him tossed their weapons lightly. There were slightly blue glowing chambers in the guns.

"I'm not sure you understand... we don't just have pokemon themselves. Pokemon are a resource we use properly, and you don't, money-hungry autocrats."

The businessman chuckled. "And how can a criminal lord something over an autocrat?" He nodded to the soldier beside him. Maxie couldn't help the grin taking over his face as the soldier lifted the weapon and pulled the trigger, inciting a brief rising shriek as the chamber's glow dimmed. Advanced firepower; still good ol' bullets that with newfound firepower could rip through three skulls in a row.

But Maxie had already flung his arms and flames wide and he blasted energy out of himself, making the bullet explode. The wicked fire, sustained, sent the Mainlanders staggering back out and when Maxie abruptly ceased the jetting flow of energy, he released Salamence. The gigantic dragon snapped its jaws, shaking its hefty scaled body, sending spit flying from its spear-like teeth as it bowled aside the writhing, smoking businessman. It charged out of the gym, blasting concrete and electric circuits and cords everywhere and the gray daylight flooded in.

Maxie glanced back as he followed his dragon out. Courtney was at his heels, and then it was Winona and Juan and everyone else.

Maxie looked forward again, dodging Salamence's lashing tail as it spewed flamethrower left and right, taught to turn the energy into real flames as soon as it expelled the attack out of its open maw. Bullets flashed off its scales, such was the creature built.

I am your leader, Maxie thought, satisfied, of all the stunned faces behind him as he commanded,

"Use your pokemon!"


	65. We Must be Important

"You can't go with me," Mrs Mayer was saying, shaking her head at Prof Birch as four walked abreast. Shelley had gone off somewhere and no one really cared.

Another message had just come to Brendan, May and the Professor's Navs: trainer cards were now considered invalid and no gym challenges could be made. It didn't say informal battling was off-limits but it did say _Please make sure you have your pokemon on hand when the passport centre is opened in your designated collect city._

_So they can take them away,_ May thought, realizing the enormity of the transfer they would all be put through. 'They would take our pokemon!' ... _They would, wouldn't they, Maxie_? Who was more evil, Maxie or the Mainland?

Evidently others in the crowd had the same idea as several veered away to the hospital as well when the foursome did. Cutting diagonally through the stodging flow of people jostled May into Brendan and she exclaimed a "sorry" as he righted himself with a wince. She glanced over him as he clutched his leg before motioning her on and hurrying after.

When they got in, the hospital full as ever, Mrs Mayer told her son to stay there. She put her hands on his shoulders and looked the tiniest bit up into his eyes.

"Brendan, you've tried, and I am so proud of you," she told him as he gulped. "But you can't do anything against so many people. You have to leave everything to the Mainland's care. They have the authority. I'm sorry, Brendan..." She embraced him as May looked away. "I know you would have made it to Champion. You've already shown yourself as an amazing trainer."

/

"Mom," Brendan said hoarsely, "You're acting like the Mainland is going to get everything back to normal, but they're not." He backed away, searching his mother's sad, pained gaze and knew her argument. "I'm never going to be a trainer. Again."

"They'll let you train Sinnoh species-"

"If we're even moved to Sinnoh! And Swampert's gone, Mom! There's not going to be any-any justice!" he half-spat.

"I know, Brendan, but please listen to me, we haven't really talked since-"

"Yeah, Maxie killed Dad, I know, and you know what the Mainland will do about that?"

He waited for his mom to say "nothing" but she didn't as his pulse roared in his ears. She had hope in the Mainland? She had no faith in him? She didn't, she hadn't even been willing to see that he could use pokemon attacks, and now when she was the most relevant thing he had left she was pulling out.

As she shook her head tightly at him and her eyes teared up Brendan felt like the last of the support he'd built his self-esteem on crumbled under him. He'd pushed his friends away chasing the League dream, he'd lost Dad who was the only one who actually believed he was something and it was partly his fault, and now Mom was - was - he couldn't even speak, it was like she had just orphaned him.

"You have to stay safe, alive," Mrs Mayer said pleadingly.

Brendan felt like his consciousness was somewhere very far away as he moved around his mom and tried to find some remnant of strength, drawing confidence from her confidence in him, but there was nothing. Something between them snapped.

He ran down a hallway, heading for the shared office.

/

May looked at Prof Birch as Mrs Mayer staggered to a chair in the rearranged waiting room, which now hosted people with scrapes and cuts, and collapsed in sobs.

May's dad put a strong arm around her shoulder and squeezed her tight.

"Just talk to me, May," he said. A doctor accompanying a patient along with two wigglytuff passed them. "Keep talking to me."

"I will, I will," she said.

...

Steven Stone managed to flee the building as the angry mob stampeded through. He made it onto Skarmory just as the angry people surged at him, throwing whatever they could find, insult or stone, at him.

Steven urged his steel flying type up high and then in the directions of the League, fleeing from the havoc below and the impressive hulk of the helicarrier approaching with its retinue of helicopters.

He flipped out his Nav, hanging onto his bird tightly with his knees and other hand. His father had messaged him.

_Hard luck for both of us, Steven. The Mainland needs to keep Devon somewhere, otherwise Sinnoh won't receive imports anymore. Our best young workers will be transferred to Sinnoh and the ones who're loyal Devon employees to the bone will be sent to the Mainland. I'm in group two, son, so if you get shipped off to Sinnoh before I see you - well, you know where I've gone. They're here already, shutting us down, carting off our stock to Sinnoh without a penny our way. We must be important, eh son?_

Steven's spirits sunk lower. Devon would be weakened, to the detriment of all who used its products, separated as such. Sure enough, the next message was a declaration from the Mainland for him to go to his hometown of Mossdeep and wait for a passport office to be opened. An additional remark was added saying he would be passed for Sinnoh preeminently if he signed the attached documents.

He laughed grimly in the back of his throat. They would have to drag him there if they wanted him carted off preeminently. But he would have to go, he would, when the steely battle hall grew silent and the challengers were taken in their starvation and sickness to other lands, in debt of their saviours.

Back to texting his father. He did it with one hand, slowly, as the wind whipped at him. So this was how they would be parted. He'd always assumed some day the Devon president would die content at an old age and Steven would assign someone else to carry on the business. No. The Mainland would probably get all his vast knowledge out of him and pass it on to whoever in Sinnoh they chose to construct a Devon clone, but under their power.

_You might have some time. Hoenn is going to fight_, Steven texted. _And guess who is leading them._ He settled in on Skarmory and tried to put his mind at rest as the dark swells crawled by below them.

The Nav buzzed just as he was losing control and his mind was about to run off into wild places of desperate strategizing.

_I haven't had time to watch the coverage. Who? A riot? _

_A riot_, Steven texted, _and it's Aurus. At their head, with Winona, Tate, Juan, Magmas, Roxanne._

_Dr Aurus_? came the quick reply.

_Yes. _

_What's he doing here? Out of prison? Is there footage?_

_There should be._

Steven's Nav remained quiet after that.

Dr. Aurus. The name represented the dark age of Devon - the name was like an embarrassing moment you never tell anyone about. And the how and why of the man's obvious prison release and journey back to Hoenn plagued Steven.

Landon Aurus. The man had another name, when he had seemed like a friend everyone called him by his middle name, Landon... The records stuffed in locked, dark drawers all read Landon Aurus. Steven couldn't remember it. But the whispered memories were fresh with intrigue.

Aurus had, some years ago when Steven was just a preteen and starting to hang around his dad at work, been the head of the Land Development team, working on the mines in Fallarbor. He had contributed a lot to safety and also had an interest in geology, which Steven picked up on. The love had stayed, and those hours spent making a racket in the deep caves and tunnels under the supervision of Aurus and company were not too different in mood from whenever Steven went spelunking now.

The doctor was always caring towards Steven - he had to be, Steven was the president's son - so a few times when Aurus fell inexplicably ill he was missed and stressed over.

No one knew why he got sick so suddenly and violently, until incriminating evidence was recovered from his private quarter of the labs in Fallarbor and his whole office was explored thoroughly. The investigation was prompted by a rabid poochyena escaping his lab and having to be put down; it was discovered by Steven, no less.

In Dr Aurus' lab they found dead pokemon, their bodies stored hygienically.

Mixtures made of minerals and plants, skewed formulas.

A stolen XP needle.

But the dead pokemon. It was an unspeakable crime-even though most were zubat. The few corpses examined briefly in horror showed traces of different sicknesses. They later uncovered a low spot in the mines with more, carefully laid-to-rest casualties.

Aurus' blood samples showed traces of minerals and plant substances found in his lab. No wonder he had become sick so inexplicably and harshly.

The Mainland took him to prison and Devon never spoke of Dr Aurus again and never gave him a thought, except maybe in the dark of a cavern being developed, with a shudder.

Maximillian. That was his first name. Maximillian Landon Aurus - the Magmas had been there at the Commonhouse, at his side - Maxie...? No... No, it was no use guessing. But Steven couldn't help it. He guessed and postulated and stuffed down his hopeless fate all the way to the League.

...

Possessing all the energy of the Groudon and Kyogre, Maxie didn't give the unprepared Mainland forces that rushed from the helicarrier a chance for a straight shot. He sustained a constant blanketing shield of fire swooshing out of him and billowing with pockets of sparked explosions. The shield of flame ringed the stunned resistance and their pokemon. Maxie was not even singed, the fiery energy around him just that, harmless energy. He laughed to himself in the cacophony of crackling and yelling and exploding and the shrieks of guns. It almost felt physically good, releasing this energy. If he closed his eyes his eyelids were bright and he could visualize the area of his attack.

He considered keeping up the blasting flames for a good deal longer but let them dissipate with little gasps of energy into the ashen sky as he harvested what free energy he could.

The grassy space was burnt and smoking; trees flamed like spindly torches, soldiers lay on the ground and the semi-organized rows of the reinforcements yet to attack stood a good deal off, across the scarred battlefield, backed against the Commonhouse. Maxie stepped forward, and took another step and another as the ranks of the soldiers shifted nervously. The army commander was probably the man with the orange stripe across his moulded, shock-absorbent chest plate. Maxie surveyed the streets that fed off the Commonhouse field; people thronged in them, watching, standing back.

"You're still sure you want to take everything we have left?" Maxie barked shortly at the Mainland troop. He saw the commander's gun rise, but all it took was a finger raised in the air and Salamence plummeted from the sky. The short gunshriek sounded and Maxie shot a concentrated fire blast out of his palms and exploded the bullet at near point-blank range. Releasing his focus, he looked up at his beast which snapped the commander up in its jaws like a wiener in a hot dog bun. Salamence regained altitude with enormous wingbeats that sent the trails of smouldering flames from the greenery streaming out horizontally. The soldiers below scattered and fired their weapons, but the scaly hide of the salamence could take a few hits.

With a wrench of its thickly muscled neck, Salamence threw the commander out over the city, and he arced over the remains of a skyscraper, out of sight.

The dragon returned with an earth-shaking landing beside its longtime master. The Mainland troops ceased fire as Maxie nodded the rest of his allies forward along with their pokemon.

"This. Is what. We have left!" Maxie yelled, using all of his lungspace. A silent, testing gap of silence followed and then shouts of fierce agreement from the leaders at Maxie's side, and a half-frightened cheer from the watching crowds.

Obviously someone had called a retreat because the Mainland turned as one and headed back around the Commonhouse.

As Maxie met the astonished and questioning gazes of his comrades - more like his soldiers now, or pawns, or whatever he would make of them - he felt like a leader. And now no one had the power to take it away from him.

...

Apparently, patients who had gone for walks outside to recuperate had worsened and several had developed a hacking cough. The coroners were kept busy. Mrs Mayer was off helping Dr Sharon with her rounds, and May had asked her dad to see where Swampert's body had been put and if he could have a look at it. So she and Brendan were sitting in the office. Distant coughing sounded through the door which was open a bare crack.

Brendan was sitting gloomily in the swivel chair at the desk, turned away from her. There was a 32" TV on the wall and May walked over and turned it on to GT Hoenn's channel which was broadcasting. Gabby stood with her mic in... the lobby of the Pokemon League?

"With still so many yet to be summoned to collect cities, and some unwilling to go, we expect to see trainers show up here in the next couple days for one last chance! As Elite Phoebe and Sidney told us, the League will be bulked up to make up for absent members, and you don't need to have all eight badges to enter as long as you pass an admittance exam! And look, here's Champiom Stone himself!" The camera swivelled toward the door where Steven was walking in. Gabby ran up to him. "Champion Stone, what encouraged you to continue with the League's operation in this crisis?" May looked at Steven's face, concerned. His expression was tight and tired, but he put on a grin for the camera.

"Well, Gabby, it's my duty as Hoenn's Champion. I respect all trainers who aim to become Champion, experience period or not. This League won't be our home for much longer, but at least we can leave with memories."

"So do you support the Mainland's evacuation plan?"

"I do. As we saw at the Commonhouse - violence is not the answer. We can't help ourselves in this case."

"And why can't we help ourselves?"

"We're a region built for pokemon, around pokemon. When pokemon ravage the land, we're not prepared to combat the destruction that follows. Frankly, that job is the Mainland's."

"Some criticize that your successful plan to remove the threat of the Groudon and Kyogre was a rash and unwise move as it resulted in the death of two League members, as we just learned from Elite Phoebe and Sidney, and there's a third death connected. What do you have to say to that?"

Steven glanced offscreen. "It was the best solution in the circumstances. Not everyone could be saved, but if the storms like the hurricane that ravaged Mauville were allowed to increase, more than just a few would have died."

"And the final question - where are you going in the Mainland's plan?"

"They have removed my title from me."

"The title of Champion?"

"Yes, and all the gyms are being shut down. I can't say where I'm designated to go, but I can tell you I will stay here as long as possible for any challengers. Even without trainer cards, we remain trainers."

"Thank you for your time, Champion Stone."

As Gabby recapped the interview, May turned to Brendan. "The League is being shut down! But it's open for a little bit longer! We've got to go! It's the only chance!"

Brendan gave her a dull stare. "I can't, May. Without Swampert. Mom wouldn't let me go."

"Well..." May trailed. "I should go."

"It's probably a lot tougher than it was."

"Well, I'll train today and challenge tomorrow." May bent over to lace up her shoes properly. She had just had a shower.

Brendan remained wordless, slouched in his chair. She gave him a critical look. Maybe he had had a little altercation with his mom, but that was no reason to fall into the depths of despair.

"Come on. Let's go outside."

Brendan let his head flop to one side sourly.

"I need you," May told him. "When you showed me your firepower-" she made a flicking motion with her hands- "-you said we were in this together, and together includes when you don't feel like it." She waited a second while Brendan half-stood up, and then she just grabbed his arm and dragged him out until he jerked away from her and kept pace.

...

Once outside in the same clearing they had used before to test Brendan's battle abilities, May dug through her bag for the right pokeball.

"Ok, Brendan, we're going to help each other train. I need to train for the League. You need to train up to Maxie's level-"

Brendan sat on a log and moaned with his head in his hands. "There's nothing we can do. We're done, May."

"No, we're not-"

"Yes we are!" Brendan jumped up with a hard glint in his eyes. "It's my damn fault, and we're done!"


	66. Scars

Brendan sat back down heavily.

"Get up," May sighed. She released Glalie, the icy pokemon hovering in front of her. "Ice beam," she told it.

"Glaaaaa," it whirred through its teeth and shot a direct network of icy energy across the clearing into Brendan. He absorbed the hit and didn't move, head in hands.

_What a jerk,_ May vented to herself. _He's such a kid_. "Ice beam!" she again told Glalie. And again and again as Brendan stubbornly continued to sit there. On the fourth one Brendan slumped over, unconsciousness and May snorted with laughter to herself. Her stat clip beeped; Glalie was level 36. She dug a revive out of her pocket, ran over and propped his mouth open, and put the tablet inside. He reanimated enough to swallow and then he was back in a jolt, looking startled.

May resumed her position behind Glalie. "Ice beam!" she commanded it again.

"Hold it," Brendan said, putting up his hands to block the crystalline energy but of course it only helped to take the hit. As May was about to order her pokemon again, Brendan extended his arms at an angle in front of him and loosed a flamethrower that hit its mark. Matching ice beam for flamethrower, Glalie only narrowly defeated Brendan this time.

More revives and the alternate swooshes of fire and icy crackles of ice beam later, Glalie was level 42. Brendan kicked a branch on the ground as May healed her pokemon.

"How many more revives have you got?" he asked.

"193," May said as Glalie hummed back to life. "Ice beam!"

...

Brendan had no way of knowing if the XP he absorbed when Glalie fainted was making him stronger, and not as if being stronger would help overthrow the Mainland and Magma too, but he kept on going because there was nothing else to do. And he had said that to May about sticking together... At least when he fainted it didn't disorient him and the hits he took hurt less than his stitched-up leg wound.

They went on like that for a good hour before Brendan sat and called a respite.

"Glalie is level 50," May told him happily. "Maybe we'll use him more later. Alright, go Tropius!" She released the large pokemon whose rubbery, leaf-like wings spanned the clearing. It let out a small roar. Brendan just looked at it.

"Get up," May said at him.

"No, I'm done," he said, but then she was at his side and pulling him up to his feet.

"You're not done, Brendan. Just because you're a bad decision maker doesn't mean you have the right to do nothing and pout."

Ouch.

"I'm not pouting," Brendan mumbled but May couldn't hear him from across the clearing.

Tropius hit him with a magical leaf. Brendan fired back flamethrower, and although the dual grass-flying type took x2 damage, the level 47 pokemon took Brendan out.

"I need a new attack," he said when he came to.

"Fly, tropius!" May commanded her pokemon. It flapped up and streamed into a whirligig of blue energy as it gained altitude above the clearing.

"Ice beam...? How would," Brendan trailed as the blue energy flew down at him and he tried to repel it with an ice attack, but a sputtering mixture of thunderbolt and flamethrower fizzled out of him and he felt the fly attack drain him of a good bit of HP. Tropius returned to the ground. As it gathered energy for a solarbeam, Brendan got in another flamethrower and KO'd it.

He kept on just to match May's impetus, but didn't look like she was going to give in anytime soon. Guess she's serious, he thought.

It got to lunch time and they breaked to go to the hospital café, but the little food left was reserved for patients.

Outside among the tents that were being packed up to move to collect cities, a man had set up a butcher stall with a grill right by him, and he had a lineup.

But the larger group of people were using their electric pokemon to attack a flock of scared taillow wheeling around in the sky. When one, KO'd, plummeted to the ground, people from the crowd clambered to catch it and then the lucky girl ran to the lineup.

Brendan and May both stared at this as they walked into the cover of the trees. He glanced at her pallid face.

"I... Think I'm going to puke," May said quickly and ran further into the bush. Brendan just stared as the next person in line handed over a struggling spoink and the butcher rinsed his cleaver. The grill was smoking, other people's food cooking.

The twisted thing was that Brendan thought it looked good. Sure, spoink and taillow were edible, but trainers didn't catch them on purpose, you didn't line up in masses, more were vegetarians than weren't in Hoenn. Or at least, had been. He turned away as his mouth watered, the smell of meat cooking drifting through the smoky air.

"I'm ok," May said, stumbling out from behind some battered pinen trees. She was still looking a bit pale. Brendan hadn't really thought much about how she looked, in general. _She is sort of attractive, I guess._ Round chin, small nose, bright roundish blue eyes, usually rosy cheeks. "Let's get back to work."

Brendan trailed her into the clearing and mentally toughened himself up to face whoever May chose next: her makuhita.

They went at it for awhile longer, alternating between single and double battles, using Brendan's pokemon occasionally until it was starting to grow dusky and the pinen trapped more of the light in their tangled branches. Twice they heard the unfamiliar, affronting noises of air travel, but their Navs remained silent, although during a brief respite Brendan learned that the people in Fortree were already being collected at the Pokemon Center and flown to their destination. Apparently it was a covert and guarded business, no cameras allowed inside.

May cycled through her pokemon relentlessly. Brendan soon went on autopilot. He began to get a sense of when he was going to faint and took hyper potions to prevent the awkwardness of May feeding him revive tablets.

Finally it was May who sat down.

"I'm hungry," she noted.

"I'm starving," Brendan said. "My mom might have something for us." He was beat, mentally for the most part, from having to focus. "So? Ready for the League?"

May scanned her pokeballs with her stat clip.

"Etz, level 74. Gallade level 68." Yeah, the gallade was overpowered for its level. "Glalie level 62. Tropius level 58. Hariyama 47." May sighed. "I lost Peli. I was counting on him to beat Steven."

But the seven hours they'd been out here hadn't gone to waste, that was sure. "Here. Have a fire type." Brendan dug in his bag and tossed May Ninetales' pokeball, but she avoided catching it.

"I have to beat the League on my own feet-"

"It's just a replacement. And I helped you," Brendan said. May picked up the pokeball and turned it over.

"What level and pokemon?" she asked.

"Ninetales. She must be about 60, 70. She's a master contest winner, but my dad trained her a lot. She's the family pokemon though and I dunno if she'll listen to you."

May released the elegant fox pokemon and Brendan convinced it that May was a friend.

The two trainers walked back to the hospital. The butcher was still going strong. Nurses rushed around the makeshift tents outside. The evening had grown chilly.

Once they were inside, May turned to Brendan as they headed in the direction of Mrs Mayer's office.

"We really just spent almost eight hours out there," she said.

"Not my idea," said Brendan.

"That's why we ended up better than we started," May said, trailing at the end, as if she had blurted out something she didn't mean to.

They stopped in front of the office which was occupied. "Sorry," May said to him, her eyes honest, "It's not like I make it out to be-"

"No, no, it's fine," Brendan shrugged her off.

/

May wondered how long he would say he was fine, if he was really over Norman's death or if he would just explode one of these days, or if he would float along in this mire of lost focus.

Mrs Mayer was slumbering on a comfy chair at the back of the narrow office while Dr Sharon rattled away at the keyboard. There was a plate of food sitting on the desk and the two teens devoured it hungrily at a nod from Dr Sharon.

"I'm sorry, but you two will have to find some place to sleep," Dr Sharon said, gaze still running across her computer screen, her Nav hooked to it. "The Mainland might not get to us for awhile, so try and find something permanent."

"What do you mean, awhile?" May asked.

"They're taking care of Fortree first. Apparently there's been trouble. And if they're sane at all I'm sure they'll try Mossdeep next. I'm guessing a few days at the least."

May and Brendan quietly headed out after May texted her dad an update. As they exited May saw Brendan give his mom a few glances.

"To the Suru's?" May proposed.

"I guess."

As dark fell over Hoenn, hastened by the ash spewing from Mt Chimney, the two started the trek west to Verdanturf.

It seemed to May like she was living off silence, every bit of empty space she could get. There were no illumise and volbeat gleaming in the patches of grass along the road and no distant zigzagoon barking. Nevertheless May regained some sort of forward-thinking capabilities as they walked, sneakers treading the grass and cracking branches strewn about underfoot.

As Verdanturf's welcoming lights glowed ahead of them, May stopped Brendan by the side of a fallen white picket fence which enclosed a field of flora, equally toppled. It had already been raided of berries, both human-edible ones and pokemon-edible ones.

May caught Brendan's wrist and looked into his eyes which darted around her face in confusion.

"Are we friends," she asked him, feeling the pulse in his wrist.

"Why?" he said after a pause.

"Because," May struggled to articulate what she had been thinking about, "none of this will work if we don't decide. It has to be both of us. Brendan, we can't lose any more." She felt her voice tear in her throat.

"Why not," Brendan said spitefully after the slightest, most hopeful rise in his eyebrows. He jerked away.

"BRENDAN!" May yelled at him. He stopped. Her words had cut the thick quiet. She felt her eyes tearing up. "I've never really known you, so if I never will, tell me now and I'll stop trying."

It seemed like Brendan was going to say something bitter but he didn't.

"Maybe we should all give up trying," he said.

"You were going to be Champion someday," May reminded him, shifting her weight.

"Not now," he said.

May was furious. How could he just give in?! She raised her hand and dropped it and trembled. "Brendan. You. Need. To fight. You're Maxie's only rival. How could you not, they've done so much to you-"

"This is how it goes, May," he cut her off, voice rising, "we're happy for awhile. We, my family. Then someone gets hurt and we move, and we forget what we want to remember and we remember what we want to forget and it happens again, and again, and maybe until there's nothing left. You can try fighting it but maybe it's better to give in and-and let everything go, everything you know-"

"But if you fight, you'll have memories! Good memories! There won't be anything to forget-"

"Memories go, May," Brendan said viciously, "And nothing will return them. I'll forget all of Dad."

So that was his issue? "Your memory works perfectly fine, Brendan, just because you move away-"

"SHUT UP!" Brendan nearly screamed, and then backed away as May jumped. He turned away from her.

Al-right then. Ok. Ok. May took a couple breaths and then dashed forward as Brendan dropped to his knees and slung his backpack off his arm, cursing and fumbling in the dark.

"What do you need?" May gasped. "A hyper potion?"

"Forgot my damn meds today," he mumbled, overturning all his bag's contents onto the ground. He found a pill bottle and gulped a couple tablets down. "Not like they help the dreams," he said, seeming to relax.

"Maybe we should just get to Verdanturf and you can sleep," May said, her spirits sunken.

"No."

"Yes. Take off your toque for once-"

"Oh and why?"

"Because you were even wearing it when you burned up the hospital bed in the middle of the night, I don't know!" May threw up her hands. "It could-"

Brendan took off his toque. His black hair was a bit overgrown and messy.

Except for on the right side of his head, no hair grew where two curving ugly scars sliced from near his hairline back to the back of his skull, one longer than the other, a couple inches apart. It was obvious even in the dim dusk.

"My memory doesn't work fine, May," he told her. "I can't fight. I'm done. You don't have to be." He dropped his head and pulled his toque back on. "I'm sorry," he said in a whisper. "Whatever Maxie does, just stay away from him."

With that Brendan turned and headed back the way they'd come.

May watched him until her eyes grew tired and then she continued on for Verdanturf.

...

May tossed and turned at the Suru's.

She wanted to feel sorry for Brendan, and she wanted to know how it happened, so she could empathize fully.

But she couldn't allow herself that now.

Anyway, they weren't friends.

She squirmed over onto her back, entangling herself in the sheets. Her heart and gut pounded "no, no, you must convince him" and her mind screamed "May, this is way past when you give up". She cursed her own instincts inside of her, her take-charge wiring. Lying awake, she repeated the mantra to herself, I won't go back, I won't go back, I won't go back.

She read the news on her Nav at some point. She might've dozed off, or not.

When it was 5:00 am she jumped out of bed and ran as fast as she could out of the Suru's.

...

Brendan woke to a slap of icy energy freezing his face. He jerked himself upright; he had no clue where he was and only that May and Glalie were in front of him.

"You're not sorry for what you did to us last night! You're just sorry for yourself! How can I stay safe from Maxie if you won't protect me?!" May said. Brendan glanced wildly around; we was in the middle of a picked-clean hondew field. Hondew grew as tall as corn and the neat rows were now intertwined in bulky hedges or flattened patches. It was dawn and early. "You weren't sorry! Weren't you! Were you?!" May shoved him.

"Arceus, what-?"

"So you might have brain damage, I don't know what's the deal with you, but Hoenn needs you NOW!" May tiraded on.

Brendan felt dazed. He hadn't expected her back. He thought he'd crushed their connection, and he'd felt sad and guilty and now - he didn't know what he felt. "But-"

"Grow up, Brendan!" May was shaking him by the shoulders. "I know your dad died! I know Swampert died! And guess what, a lot more people died last night because Maxie's gathered the gym leaders and attacked the Mainland soldiers in Fortree! Feel sorry for yourself later! I'm here and we can work together. You have to do something. Right." May hung on his shoulders, looking into his eyes.

"I don't have to," he stated. He did deserve pity. He deserved to be sorry for himself, because it was torture, reality ripped away from you and nightmares dripping in to fill mindspace. And he deserved to be sorry that he had to be sorry in the first place, because of his mistakes.

"But you can."

"Hopeless."

"You can."

"I'll fail."

"We can. I didn't say win or lose. I said fight."

"We can?"

"Yes."

"We will?"

"Yes."

Brendan would wonder later how May had drawn up so much confidence in him. But it was that which drew the "Alright" past his lips. A resignation settled in him.

May tilted her head to one side and took a small step back. "Starvation, fever, that's the issue - and as slow as the Mainland is, Maxie is making them slower and people are dying. That's what we're fighting, right?"

Brendan nodded slowly. "Right. And moving from Hoenn...?"

"People's lives first. We have to find out where there's food and get it to the people. We have to stop Maxie if we can."

"You thought about this."

"Yes."

Brendan realized he really hadn't know who May was before this. She was more stubborn than him. Way more. Stronger. Stronger, maybe. She didn't stop. He'd never seen her give up.

A long long pause interrupted the conversation during which it was somehow not awkward to just stare at the other person and consider them.

/

May wasn't as relieved as she'd thought she'd be when Brendan said yes. She didn't know the source of his scars or the extent of their effect. To that end he was more of a wild card, and she felt cold telling him that it didn't matter, because it probably did. But there was no time, and even a questionable agreement from Brendan did make her feel ... more secure. And that was better than relief.

He spoke first and drew her out of her thoughts.

"While we talk, I'll fly you to the League," Brendan said.

"We don't-"

"The challenge will take a couple hours at most. Come on. Beat Steven and then get his support."

"You have a point there...but-"

May could see tension in the eyes behind those glasses. She waited for him to say something. The burning to conquer the League in its last days she had managed to force down under the necessity to save lives.

"There's gonna be time to feel sorry later, and... You can't be the one," Brendan said with ... what was that, respect? With a kind of admiration... "So come on." Brendan stepped away, released Swell and pulled May up behind him.

May took deep breaths as Swell began its ascent and her heart shot down into the pit of her stomach. This was better than relief, but it still brought her an inexplicable measure of calm, gripping the arms of this unlicensed flyer as he held them tight onto the rising bird.


	67. Entrance Exam

**AN: I am now writing the close-to-last chapter. (I am consistently staying 8 chapters ahead in writing, so I can iron out previous knots.) let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see before this all concludes and I have to edit.**

* * *

The crowd in Fortree that had gathered to hear out Winona and Juan and Maxie was much more bloodthirsty than Mauville's crowd. Hunger was strong in the masses of Sootopolians and Fortreens. They had not the strength lacking food as they were to go out to the damaged lumber mills and retrieve materials for fixing their houses, or even the mills themselves. So when the Mainland collect office was opened in the Pokemon Center with an army standing around it and a helicarrier waiting, taking over route 119, the people had no strength to fight. They reluctantly handed their pokeballs over, which were filed into a large machine, and had their trainer cards cut in half and were assigned to a place depending on their value in the workforce. After being organized they stood in groups in the walkways, destruction and half-baked repairs littered round them, crying and hugging for the last time. "If the Mainland would only give us food instead of taking us away from our homes," they said, in different ways.

Then their two leaders arrived back from Mauville along with another man, and told them of a grand vision, a battle to show the Mainland what they and pokemon were worth combined.

"The Mainland doesn't respect pokemon. They won't let me into my own gym! They're forcing us in our weakness to submit to their mindset and I'm asking you: do you want that?" Winona had a strong, condemning speaking voice and the crowds wavered before her.

"They'll move us, feed us, we'll gasp in relief and then they'll sentence us to their plans," Maxie continued.

"Haven't we been through enough?" Juan tagged on, addressing the Sootopolians. "If the Mainland cared, we would be fed, no?"

The crowd was transformed, split into a straggle of those who quietly continued to the collect center and a raging mob out for blood.

Winona and Juan gathered the people with their host of flying type pokemon that were so popular in Fortree and the water types of Sootopolis. A blockade of soldiers stood between them and the helicarrier, but the civil army urged their pokemon on the soldiers, which were yet reluctant to shoot. In the confusion, Maxie loosed a widespread fire blast that billowed into the night. The storm of people a few thousand strong rushed through the smoking gap in the troops and got onto the helicarrier, which was like an indoor barracks. Eventually, and although the Mainland soldiers were reorganized to go in after them, the crowd found the food storage and ripped it apart in utter chaos. In a frenzy they spilled back out of the helicarrier, and their leaders emerged soon after, having taken a trip to all the engine rooms they could find.

As Maxie, Winona, Juan. the civil army and their pokemon held off the Mainland, the food was chaotically distributed among the hungry people.

Eventually the black-garbed forces retreated to their helicarrier and didn't emerge. A cheer went up from the people; pokemon thronged, flapping excitedly, in the sky.

...

"They weren't shooting to kill," Winona stated after she had broken back into her gym and convened with the other leaders on her battle platform. Her stock of badges had been taken and her trainer card was deactivated as was every gym leader's.

"They will soon, we've done enough damage," Maxie said, arms crossed and standing tall. "We need to organize the people who will volunteer themselves and their pokemon so we'll be ready."

"You think we can fight the guns?" Juan proposed half-nervously. He had a number of strong pokemon that had protected him well.

"Pokemon are not trained for physical battle," Maxie stated, pacing sideways, "but it's in their instincts." He looked up at the ceiling. "As soon as we can do roll call, we'll use Winona's gym and direct their use of their pokemon."

"Two per one person is enough to look after," Winona stated.

"Yes. Tell every man who wants to join our force to bring a good branch along with him. We'll need some sort of target."

"And when does this start?" Juan said.

"Now. There's no time to waste. The Mainland is likely receiving approval as we speak to use their weapons." Maxie flipped out his Nav, read a few updates from Courtney and Eric who were organizing Mauville's people.

"What about your powers you say come from pokemon?" Winona asked him.

"I'll be using them to our advantage," Maxie said.

"It's very impressive. And it's very sketchy."

"I can explain the science later, Winona," Maxie said with a dip of his head. "It was a dangerous procedure and if we have the time perhaps the asset could be transferred to others."

"You shouldn't transfer it. You should restrict it," Winona countered. "Until after."

"And, if I do, will there be an after?" Maxie questioned. The tall gym leader remained silent, chin lifted.

"I think it is the quite nice advantage," Juan put in. "Er-shall we go?"

Maxie let Winona take the lead out of the gym.

...

Wallace arrived back at the League as the trio of commanders in Fortree were taking volunteers for the Mainland resistance. It had proved a challenge to catch gym-representative pokemon; almost all of their natural environments had been disturbed and damaged. Nevertheless he had caught a geodude, a machop, a magnemite, a torkoal, a skarmory, a solrock, and he had Seaking and a vigoroth already.

Steven was waiting for him in the League's foyer, which had been cleared of all emergency supplies and set back to order with the yellow and orange waiting chairs squared off on the yellow and orange tile. It was strange to see the medical and sales counters unmanned and the entrance to the test of every trainer's tenure unguarded as well.

Wallace listed the pokemon and handed them all to the Champion.

"Thank you," Steven said. "I can't repay you, and in fact I need to ask something else of you."

Wallace nodded.

"I need someone to run the admittance battle."

"Well," Wallace said after a pause, with a slight smile, "I don't have anything else to do, other than be shipped to the Mainland."

"The Mainland?! Not Sinnoh?" Steven exclaimed. "Why would they send a young-"

"I have ties," Wallace interrupted uncharacteristically. "Not that I'm glad of it."

"Oh," Steven said, because he couldn't say anything else. He and Wallace had been friends ever since they'd become trainers - Wallace had enrolled late in trainer's school and taken an accelerated course - but as far as he was concerned Wallace's parents had just been uptight and had kept him at home in Fortree for longer than usual. "Normally I wouldn't ask, but we aren't coworkers anymore. Or even fellow trainers."

"I was never your coworker, Champion Steven," Wallace said half-glibly.

"You stop it," Steven said dourly. "But what are your Mainland connections?"

"My parents had the real ties, they were high up in the entertainment industry, involved in dance group licensing."

"Dance...?" Steven asked quizzically.

"Imagine pokemon contests, all the flair and choreography - that big show that coordinators put on in Lilycove?"

"Yes, that one."

"Yes, but people in the Mainland undergo training to do that kind of thing themselves, not accompanying pokemon."

Steven considered this. "Interesting."

"It's quite a feat to see some who have been years in training," Wallace said, and Steven heard some much-missed enthusiasm in his voice. "And at first that's what Winona and I were going to be, even if my parents had been moved to Hoenn, their children would have the good life, we would go back and..." Wallace trailed off, dropping a sweeping motion he'd been making.

"So - but, your injury," Steven put in.

"Yes. And I told you the truth, it was the boating incident, out looking for feebas... Never again. Winona dropped dance too." Wallace looked down at the hip that didn't let him walk evenly. "At least I loved being a gym leader. Winona? She'd have rather been a dancer."

Steven felt a pang of guilt for bringing up the subject. What was he doing, dealing with his friend's personal past at a time like this?

"So is that a yes?"

"Of course," Wallace said with a bit of a wan smile. Steven instructed him how the test would be run and that he would be using Sidney's battle room. The Champion turned to go and stopped himself in his tracks. Turning back to Wallace, he said,

"The dioxin was your idea?"

Wallace looked unfazed. "Yes."

"I see." Steven looked aside.

"If you have nothing left to lose, why would you desire victory?" Wallace said as if reading poetry.

"You're not eating, are you?" Steven said. "There's fish in the back. Drake still has lots more."

Something like fear crossed Wallace's face and he shook his head the slightest bit. "No, I'm fine." He put a smile on his face but it slipped quickly off.

"No, you're not. You can't run on an empty stomach. Go. You're getting thin."

"Just now?" Wallace raised his eyebrows. His hair was falling out of a loose tie.

"Not funny," Steven said. Wallace responded with a faint "hah" and went in the direction he was told.

Wallace's uneven gait seemed obvious as Steven doubtfully watched him go.

...

The Mainland Resistance had an army. Granted, only a couple thousand strong at the moment, but after a long session of pokemon training and coupled with the triumph over the collect office in Fortree, it was prepared. What a desperate man won't do for freedom.

And now they were sleeping, waiting for the morrow, to stage their first united stand against the Mainland.

...

Brendan and May had arrived at the League, having decided that it would by far be the best choice to go to Dewford, relay the news of their gym leader's death, and plead the case of starvation's onset in Hoenn. Although Dewford didn't grow food, it had stopped packaging and delivering it, and apparently had stopped fishing as well. Stopped; but logically they still had much in reserve that wasn't leaving the island.

Inside the foyer of the League it was silent. The bar of scrolling words above the open entry to the League said Enter all challengers.

May looked at Brendan with concern. "So I'll text you when I'm done," she said. "I'm totally underprepared, Brendan, I don't have enough experience-"

"You'll be fine," he said.

May was surprised when he leaned forward and gave her a quick, rough hug. She almost wanted to say, you know, you don't have to do this, but she couldn't. He had to. And he had better keep himself unhurt, because she felt it was all on her. She saluted as she walked towards the Elite Four entrance. A lone trainer emerged from the back door looking disappointed as Brendan waved goodbye and jogged back out.

...

"I am sorry I couldn't get word to Steven in time," Wallace said privately as May faced him for the admittance exam in Sidney's room. "I saw him while he was at the Commonhouse - but I didn't think we had enough proof."

May shook her head. "It's alright. We couldn't have stopped Maxie."

"You never know," Wallace said, looking back to a row of eight pokeballs on the table behind him. "Let the entrance exam commence! You may use any of your pokemon in this switch-style battle until you have defeated all eight of these gym representative pokemon! Geodude, go!"

"Etz!" May commanded, releasing her sceptile in a swirl of energy from the pokeball. It easily knocked out the geodude with a leaf blade.

Wallace switched to torkoal, her weakness, so she sent in Hariyama. A couple good attacks from the hefty fighting type left the torkoal no time to injure its opponent with stat changing moves.

Finally they were down to Seaking. It had the ability lightningrod, but May didn't have a electric pokemon anyways.

However, its ice beam quickly wore down Etz. It was on the verge of fainting and May decided to switch out to Tropius, taking a risk with the 4x weakness.

"Ice beam!" Wallace ordered his seaking again. The water suspension system held Sea 'afloat' on wavy currents of energy. The fish waved its fins and spread a piercing net of energy out that speared its much larger foe. Tropius let out a humming roar. May checked her stat clip; the attack had done about a third of Tropius' HP.

"Prepare solarbeam," May told her pokemon. It spread its wings and absorbed energy. She crossed her fingers, willing Seaking not to land a critical hit, but Wallace instead gave his pokemon a hyper potion. Oh yeah, great. Tropius released the torrent of blazing sun-like energy, blasting Seaking with an impressive twister of natural energy, but it still wobbled, fins fluttering.

"Come on, Seaking, another ice beam!"

Now Tropius was down to the red, icy energy frosting on its skin. It shook its long neck, still willing to fight.

"Let's go for a synthesis," May said. Tropius regained some health, drawing energy in from its surroundings, using the biological mechanisms in its wings.

"Ice beam," Wallace told Sea. The fish again landed a direct hit, but this time Tropius was only in the orange.

They traded a few more syntheses and ice beams until Tropius had more than one third of its health left, and then May went for the magical leaf.

It took the last entrance exam pokemon out.

Wallace congratulated her and opened the doors to the next room via a button in the floor on his side of the room.

May went on, healing her pokemon, ready to face Sidney...for the second time.

...


	68. Bring It

As Brendan was on his flight to Dewford, Maxie, Winona and Juan were leading the army down route 119. There were no rangers; the high grass had been flattened in places and although the thick woods surrounding the paths and fields still stood, the Bassef river had swelled and churned up the riverbanks so that the fast-running current was a mere foot below some of the log bridges.

The civil army had been encouraged to leave their pokemon free of their pokeballs and it greatly enhanced the appearance of the force. Maxie had soberly reminded them that, if they were not triumphant, these would be the last days they had with their pokemon.

Most of the volunteers were men, but actually less than expected. With Winona's leadership in Fortree, there were a good number of women in the group. As they walked they worked on sparring with their pokemon. Most seemed quite happy to be engaging in actual, physical contact battling. After all, pokemon are wild creatures at heart.

Maxie's Nav rang. It was Dr Syder saying he had been called to the collect office.

"Well? Is the Mainland forcing you?" Maxie asked.

When the reply came back negative, Maxie told him to just sit tight.

As the army drew within a couple miles of Mauville, the foreboding thrumming of distant Mainland copters filled the air.

...

May had beaten Sidney; she had scraped by Phoebe using her grass types, having no type super effective against dark; and she had just defeated Drake with Glalie as her main pokemon. Not to say that they had been easy. She had to think about every move, she was hit by panic whenever something happened she hadn't predicted. Finally a last ice beam from Glalie KO'd Drake's intimidating salamence and May began to walk up the echoing dark blue steps to the champiom's room. Her heart pounded; there was only the buzzing of the dimming and glowing lights along the steps. Upwards. Her palms were moist, she had this paranoia of suddenly dropping one of her pokeballs out of her bag.

Finally she reached the top plateau and entered the doors into the Champion's battle room.

Steven looked so... Unassuming, in such a room: it was purple like the zigzags on his suit. The platform was octagonal with white lines defining his side and her side and the walls seemed to be made out of metal: they were gridded in tile-like patterns that reminded May of mailboxes.

The danger was that there was a sheer dropoff from the platform so that it didn't touch the walls, a moat of white light bouncing off the metal and filling the room with a hazy glow. Above May was a tall reflective ceiling.

Steven had a wide smile on, defying the black circles under his eyes. "Welcome, May." His voice flew around the eight-walled room. "I was looking forward to seeing you here one day." Hm? That must not be scripted, May thought, and her heart kept beating, climbing into her throat. There was personal warmth in his words even as he raised his voice to go on with the generic section. "What did you see on your journey with pokemon? What did you feel, meeting so many other Trainers like you? What has awoken in you? I want you to hit me with it all!" Steven raised his arms. There was a wind jetting up from the deep crevasse around their platform along with light. "Bring it! Skarmory, go!" Steven released his steel-type bird. Ok, ok, I can do this, thought May. His pokemon are normally ... Oh what did we learn, close to level 60? But with Glacia gone...

"Go Ninetales!" May released the Mayer's elegant fox pokemon.

"Spikes!" Steven ordered his Skarmory to set up. May retaliated with a flamethrower. She admitted to herself, she had long considered herself a strategic battler who could learn to set up to the point of invincibility; but she would never be one of those legends. Using stat moves was useful but she couldn't bring herself to adopt that battle style if she had the choice between it and all-out damage.

And by Mewtwo she would need all the damage she could get. Skarmory ruffled its metallic wings, sending blobby purple energy over to Ninetales: a toxic attack that poisoned it. Well, I have no choice now. "Flamethrower again!"

The fox pokemon jetted a wreath of fiery energy across the battlefield and hit the Skarmory. Although Ninetales was level 72, it wasn't easily knocking out the steel bird with super effective fire attacks.

Toxic sucked Ninetales' HP as Skarmory aerial ace'd it with a simple but dependable slash of energy dropping out of the air. As the poison worsened May wondered if Steven would use a full restore on his pokemon just when she was about to KO it, but it managed to scrape by as the toxic dealt a hard blow and Ninetales fainted. Reminding herself she still had revives, she switched into Hariyama, spikes glimmering around her side of the battlefield and sapping a bit of HP. The big, rotund pokemon drummed on her belly to produce a reverberating bonging in the room, but taking a big slice of damage from aerial ace interrupted her challenging display. Nevertheless, her brine attack washed with crystallized energy over Skarmory and knocked the bird out.

Not to be fazed, Steven whipped out his next pokemon: Claydol. Before it could start raising its defense, May told her quicker Hariyama to hit it with force palm. The bulky levitating pokemon took the splash of energy from the thrust hand of Hariyama without so much as wobbling as it created a translucent screen of energy around it, raising its defense.

Well, two can play at that game, Steven, May thought, hoping the claydol didn't have any powerful psychic moves. She checked her stat clip for the opposition's stats: Claydol was level 65. Ouch, Hariyama was at a disadvantage.

Another force palm hardly made a dent on the fighting-resistant opponent, but as it tried to raise its defense again on Steven's order, a fizzy yellow energy sparked around it: paralyzed from force palm.

"Belly drum!" May told her pokemon, and she fiercely enacted the risky HP-cutting move. She was counting on the paralysis to hold claydol.

"Psychic," the Champion told his pokemon tensely, but paralysis prevented its movement. May used her turn to feed Hariyama a hyper potion and Steven used a paralyze heal on his pokemon.

"Ok! Vital throw!" May commanded, and Hariyama whipped a whirling ball of energy over her head and landed a heavy hit on Claydol despite the raised defense.

"Yama!" roared the fighting type, but it was cut short as mental waves blasted into it, the super-effective attack sapping half of Hariyama's HP. This wasn't going too well. May had been wracking her brains but couldn't remember her opponent's type weaknesses-wait, that was it, grass! Alright, save this one for later. "Hariyama, whirlwind!" May said with the flash of inspiration. Claydol was sucked into its pokeball and Steven was forced to send another out, his Armaldo. May had never seen such a rare pokemon before, rare because it was a fossil pokemon specially revived by Devon. Its layers of gleaming dark blue and red pointed armour creased with beige skin were impressive. Not to be deterred, Hariyama again used vital throw. May had no clue what Armaldo's weaknesses might be but it looked like a steel type, perhaps rock because of its fossil nature.

"Stone edge!" Steven told his pokemon, which raised its tapered claws and hurled chunks of energy at Hariyama. They rounded outwards then converged in a harsh gouging edge. May's stat clip said her opponent was level 75, but nevertheless Hariyama's resistance kept her alive for another overpowered vital throw.

"Water pulse!" Steven told his pokemon next, apparently changing strategies. Hariyama took the hit but escaped being confused, returning the 1x attack with vital throw again. If the next attack confused Hariyama, she would be done - but it didn't and May threw another vital throw at the fossil pokemon.

But the Armaldo didn't faint and May was flabbergasted. She went into panic mode as it KO'd Hariyama. Which pokemon now, it had a rock move and a water move at least ... Tropius was her choice. The sauropod pokemon faced its enemy fiercely. May knew one or two stone edges and she was done for, but Tropius had superior speed and she allowed herself a grin as it flew up to avoid Armaldo's attack. The fly attack was just enough to take out the fossil pokemon, and Tropius returned from the blur of blue energy to May's side, stomping the ground.

"Alright, Cradily, go!" Steven released yet another fossil pokemon that May didn't really know the weaknesses of. Her pulse was pounding. Probably rock, at least, grass? May decided to take the spikes damage and switch out to Glalie. The squishy cradily landed a catapult-like sludge bomb which did moderate damage, but Glalie's ice beam crackled into its opponent with super effectivity. Two more would KO it, but Steven used a hyper potion and poisoned Glalie on the next sludge bomb.

May had to decide. She was allowed one more potion. To restore Glalie or hope she could take out the Cradily with Etz? She decided to save it, nervousness shooting into her as she attempted to work out Glalie's last move: to go for an ice beam or sheer cold? Could she afford to gamble? Each challenger was only allowed one shot in this final run.

No, she couldn't. Glalie landed another ice beam and after Steven ordered sludge bomb again, May's ice type fainted.

She was down to Etz, Gallade and some of tropius. Steven still had claydol and two more.

Switching out to Tropius, May commanded a fly from her sauropod, and so avoided Cradily's confuse ray. The attack didn't quite KO the cradily, and Steven ordered his fossil pokemon to again shoot cyclical confusing streams of energy at Tropius. The dinosaur became confused, flapping its wide leafy wings. "Synthesis!" May said desperately, and luckily it managed to regain HP.

"Ancientpower," Steven said triumphantly. So it is rock type as well, May realized as Cradily KO'd her pokemon with a super effective hit. "Alright, Etz!" May said, releasing her speedy pokemon. This cradily was ripping through her team; even if, rationally, it was only tying up loose ends, May had the anxious panicky feeling in her gut. Etz shook its head and made a couple of gecko ish noises, looking like it was sizing up its enemy; Cradily waved its tentacles stemming from its round head as they flushed red, but May knew it was exhausted. "Leaf blade!" she told Etz, who knocked the fossil pokemon out.

"Alright," Steven said, his expression focused - the room would carry your voice across to the other if you wanted it to - "Aggron!"

Out came the heavily armoured steel pokemon, roaring gratingly at Etz, a bloodthirsty gleam in its eyes. May watched Steven's lips move as he verbally restrained it from charging. It settled down, staring at May's starter challengingly.

The scary thing was that aggron could learn virtually any move.

But May knew it had a 4x weakness.

"Let's try an earthquake," she said confidently to Etz, despite her pounding heart and her fingertips going numb and tingly.

Etz shook its opponent with seismic waves of energy, but after everything grew still again, the aggron was still standing and snorting through its nostrils.

"Earthquake," Steven said. An identical attack shook Etz, accompanied by a fearsome roar that made May's ears ring like a sheet of aluminum being pounded.

"Earthquake," May told Etz again. What was Steven pulling? Surely he had a better strategy than just 1x attacks?

The beastly steel pokemon steadily returned earthquake for earthquake. What pokemon could take 4x attacks like this? An insanely levelled one, May figured, but her stat clip said it was only level 81: only, compared to its power. She couldn't really hear herself tell her sceptile what to do after the aggron's next attack. Even though Sceptile was inflicting a massive 4x damage, Aggron's brute strength sustained it as it again shook Etz with a copycat attack. May looked pointedly at Steven, but the Champion's face was unreadable. For some silly reason - maybe that she'd only ever battled along with him before - she'd expected him to be the friendly sort of battler, but apparently he was just showing off Aggron's strength. As the steel type was beginning to struggle with the effort of attacking Steven used his last allowed full restore. Every turn in the split second Aggron took to hurl its attack May's heart froze, begging everything to guard her against a critical hit.

May knew she could last one more hit before Etz was out, but instead of the expected earthquake, Aggron released a blast of flames at Etz, promptly KOing it.

"No!" May burst out shortly as her starter collapsed. "No..." She looked in bewilderment at the aggron as it filled the room with incensed cries.

She was down to Gallade. Hopefully Aggron's special defense wasn't so hot. Gallade hopped around, making slashing motions. It released a psychic attack that blasted into the aggron but didn't take it out. The aggron released all the energy it had in a thunder attack, Steven urging it on.

"Let's go for another psychic," May encouraged her last pokemon, her heart wanting to burst out of her and fight for Gallade on the battlefield. The aggron took the hit, lowered its head and swiped its heavy metal horns from side to side as Steven urged it on. With a furious bellow it released an aerial ace that dropped from the air. Energy gouged out a good part of Gallade's HP.

May felt like she was fated to make a very bad decision. How many more hits could the aggron take? Should she heal Gallade now, even after Aggron had unveiled its flying move?

She did. They traded a couple more attacks and the aggron finally collapsed ... after a final thunder attack that just so happened to paralyze Gallade.

She had respect for that one of Steven's pokemon.

The dark screen above the guarded exit to the hall of fame suddenly flashed to life and displayed LAST POKEMON as Steven released his weakened Claydol.

What? Only one more? There was no way May would've recalled Etz and given Aggron an extra turn just to have a type advantage over the virtually fainted claydol, so she was stuck with Gallade.

"Psychic!" May commanded, and then, "Darn," as she realized Claydol was weak to dark and resistant to psychic. There had been so many to memorize, at least she was pretty fresh out of trainers' school.

The match she thought was hers quickly seemed like it was not going to be hers as paralysis set in on her frustrated psychic/fighting type. Of course Steven took the chance to jack up Claydol's defense.

"Night slash!" May said to Gallade. It overcame the binding yellow energy fizzling over its smooth, papery-white skin and sent an arcing slice of dark energy toward its opponent. The claydol wobbled, still in the game.

"Earthquake!" Steven told his pokemon. The attack hit Gallade and sapped its HP down to the orange.

"Night slash!" May ordered, nearly dizzy with victory in her grasp. But Gallade's paralysis prevented it from moving. "No!" May shouted rather pointlessly, screaming it louder in her mind as another earthquake shook her last pokemon...

...brining it down to 15 HP.

"Night slash, come on, night slash!" May said with desperation to Gallade. It threw off the sparking paralysis energy and heaved the sickle of dark energy at the claydol again.

And just like that, May defeated Champion Steven.

Steven recalled his pokemon, blinking a few times. May was suddenly, childishly afraid he would be angry or something, but his following smile only fed her sense of achievement. Gallade made chirping noises at May's side.

"I fall in defeat," Steven said as May stepped up to him, so she could see his grin widen, "So kudos to you, May. You're a fantastic pokemon trainer. I believe pokemon respond to their trainer's feelings, and your pokemon responded to your drive with all their might... They came together as one, and created an even greater power for you to grasp victory today. You are rightfully the Hoenn region's new ... " May's Nav buzzed in her pocket, but she ignored it, "...Champion. Rightfully." Steven had a regretful look in his eyes. "Where is the Mainland shipping you off to, May?"

May interrupted her own grin long enough to say she didn't know.

"They can't put you in a place with no pokemon. No, you have the intellect and ... That was just great," Steven finished.

"Thank you, you too," May blushed, but her face was already red from all the adrenaline. She recalled Gallade, whispering ecstatic praise to it.

"If my Hall of Fame had power I would take you in, but the Mainland shut it down just before you came. However, if you have your trainer's card..."

May handed him the piece of ID and he took a pen and signed the back.

"My signature doesn't mean much anymore, but-"

"That's fine, it's great," May said. "I'll put it in my shoe or something if they try to take it."

Steven handed her a green and yellow ribbon. "And I know they'll take your pokemon. Yours and mine." May swallowed as her insides flinched. She didn't want to think about that now. "So here's just one hall of famer ribbon."

Steven pinned it on her red short-sleeved hoodie and then stepped back. The screen behind him said NEXT CHALLENGER. Apparently someone had made it through the Elite.

"I wish you the best wherever you go, May. I hope we'll meet again," Steven said.

Oh. She had to go now? Couldn't she stay here? Couldn't she? "Me too. I-really though, I mean I don't know if I'll go-"

"You have to, May," Steven said with authority. "Your misgivings about Magma-you were right. And it's my fault we can't stop them now, the few of us left."

"It wasn't all your fault," May objected.

"No, it is mine. And you have to go where the Mainland says now, so you'll be safe. Give my regards to your dad."

"I will. And I think Brendan says goodbye too."

"Oh, yes? Brendan Mayer? He's not coming?"

"I... Don't think so." He's busy not going where the Mainland wants him to go.

"That's too bad. He seemed like a vivacious trainer."

May nodded and stepped back to leave. She thought Steven had a rather fond look in his eyes as he said his very very last goodbye, and she returned it, and left.

Back outside in the dim hall, the finality of the situation hit her and she ran back out down the side passage, feet flying, wanting to be free suddenly of this place that would soon stand empty and without meaning.

...

The next challenger entered Steven's battle room just as he finished healing his pokemon. It had been an excellent battle and it made him angry that the Mainland was going to snuff out such talent. But it made him more annoyed still that he didn't feel all that furious, and mentally played back the arguments the Mainland themselves had made to him, and the soothing political reasoning and promises calmed his sense of injustice.

"Welcome, chal..." Steven trailed as he recognized the man standing before him.

Wallace.

"Lunch break," the man with the long bright cerulean hair said as a weak laugh escaped him. "Seven came through, didn't make it past Drake."

Steven stood there, wordless for a moment. Wallace waited for him to say something.

"I had never even considered the possibility that I would see you here one day," Steven said purposefully, stunned.

"Yes, well," Wallace managed. "Here I am."

Steven was still stunned.

"Mustn't you say something?" Wallace said.

"I suppose so," Steven said, searching his friend's eyes. "What did you see on your journey with pokemon?" he almost murmured. "What did you feel, meeting so many other Trainers like ...I wonder, did you meet any other trainers like you?"

The question hung rhetorically, at least to Steven.

"What has awoken in you?"

Wallace's eyebrows drew inwards and down and then relaxed. He gave a roll of his shoulders, the little wan smile reappearing on his lips. Steven wanted to hold that reaction, hold his thoughts, enjoy this.

"Bring it. Bring it all," he said, gravely, at last, and they began the steel-versus-water battle the Champion knew he was doomed to lose.

...


	69. Attack

Swell carved the air with its wings, flying like an arrow racing to the target.

Brendan wished Hoenn would last long enough for him to enter the Wing Cup races as the wind tore at his face and he hung on and was glad to feel something like this, without any strings attached.

As he passed over the Mainland, flying high where the air was thinner and so was the ash filling it, he saw a dark pod of airborne vehicles thrumming in the north. The Mainland.

Swell was already going as fast as it could and so there was nothing Brendan could do but hang on and think of May making her League challenge, and his mother staying safe with Prof Birch and probably worrying about him. He had sent her a text, but she hadn't replied. Midair, he texted May to ask if she'd won yet. He was sure she would.

After almost losing his Nav he decided to buckle down and enjoy the ride.

...

The same fleet of Mainland troops, accompanied by another monstrous helicarrier, outpaced the army coming from Fortree. The helicarrier settled its enormous bulk just outside of Mauville with the helicopters in a curving row around it.

Wells and his men had recouped into the Commonhouse. The soldiers had formed a perimeter around the government building and kept the mob away. As the angry crowd dissipated and the man who had caused fiery explosions disappeared the soldiers led forays out into the streets, securing more territory. They stopped once they had the pokemon gym covered and waited around, taking shifts as Wells and other Mainland officials wirelessly communicated with allies inside the Commonhouse. A woman claiming to be a defected member of some group that the present threat's leader was the former boss of had been the only civilian let in; rather she had been the only one they had detained after the mob swept through. Right now she was in holding until everything was finished up with the new troops coming in.

Erick and Courtney had made themselves the two leaders; Stan, Remi and Marshal backing them. Tate had returned to Mossdeep; the city was ailing badly in the grip of fever with no food and almost no electricity. It was too bad; of all of them he was the one most justly infuriated.

By the next day, as the new Mainland forces were zoning in, Erick had a comprehensive list of the army he had gathered; more arrived by the moment. The men and women who had volunteered stationed most of their family at the edge of the middle-class apartments, in a concentrated area that would be protected as the resistance forces spilled out of the casino across the street. Others in the city - for it was a great mix of not only Mauvillians now - were hustling to Verdanturf, a city unlikely to be targeted by the Mainland and close enough that the resistance could come to their aid if needed.

Courtney commanded part of the army, which numbered about 5,000 in all; Erick the largest sector, Marshal another and Stan and Remi yet another.

The civil army, while waiting for its northern half, completed drills for their pokemon under Courtney's lead; she had those with flying pokemon working on hitting ground targets in the street, powerful fighting and physical attackers maneuvering around the slots in the block-long casino, and those with useful transenergy attacks down an avenue in the outdoor exercise field, which had a bike track, foot track and smooth square for fancy trainer battles. These drills were all done pokemon alongside their trainers, and Courtney was busy running from one group to the next and demonstrating how things should be done. Although the flying pokemon were definitely having some territorial troubles, they were fierce. Courtney had to tell a few trainers to recall their unruly birds so the rest could continue in peace. The various mightyena, machoke, graveller and so on in the casino were doing quite well, trainers running around trying to put up a good fight in the dim light filled with flashing lucky 7s and lotad from the slot machine screens.

But it was the transenergy group that was doing impressive work; Courtney was mainly leading them, having divided the trainers and their pokemon into fire, water, electricity and other. After several tries the pokemon seemed to get the hang of throwing attacks in a certain direction without any pokemon target, as they lined up in a packed row along one side of the field. The day would've been sunny if not for the ash veil that was still floating downwards, only just beginning to settle on the ground. A minor tremor, an aftershock from Chimney, had rumbled the earth earlier that morning.

"Now, water, release one!" Courtney had set up a system where 'one' meant most powerful attack and 'two' meant less powerful, more accurate attack. "And electric, step up behind and one, into the water!"

The line of lombre, starmie, azurill and others released a conglomeration of water attacks that surged sparkling into the sky and crashed down, increasing the water level of the already-flooded field. They had been training for several hours, rotating stations and taking breaks. The electric pokemon released their attacks but not fast enough.

"Let's do that again! Faster, electric! Shift ranks quickly! Alright, W1 E1!" Courtney yelled from across the field. Her torkoal stood beside her, ready to shield her with protect.

This time the tactic worked perfectly and as the wall of water was rising the electrics supercharged it with deadly current. You could feel the electricity radiating out from it. As everyone realized suddenly that it was going to electrocute them, Courtney yelled, "Protect!" She had ordered it mandatory to have every pokemon learn protect (the Pokemart was all out of a certain TM now). This would weed out those who were too foolhardy to listen to orders.

Blue shields of energy shot up like a hub of little domed houses around the ranks of transenergy trainers. Energy trainers, that's what they'll be; Flying and Combat will be the others, Courtney decided as the water collapsed with a giant splash onto the field and surged out. Her torkoal's protect turned it back into harmless energy, but some screams sounded from those who hadn't taught their pokemon protect as advised. Courtney waited till those fools' friends had taken care of them and then moved to the shorter width of the field, yelling for the fires to go on one long side to face the waters.

The spectacle of combined type attacks continued under Courtney's direction.

"You're the main advantage!" Courtney yelled periodically when there was a break in the attacks. "You have to get it together! Ok, fires pick a target and waters, match it! F2 W2!"

Onlookers watched the show from the apartments, mothers holding children, lone relatives pacing or reading the news or simply enjoying being awed by the combined power of pokemon.

...

The new Mainland force organized itself, soldiers ready to march out, as the officials discussed business with their allies in the Commonhouse.

"If you can get past them without a fight, that would be good," Wells said over the video call as the dignitaries sat in the helicarrier's lush conference room. It even had a small indoor pool on its first level. The engines always thrummed, reminding its passengers that they were actually in a vehicle. "We spotted the man who caused the explosions leaving the city with others."

"Do you have pictures?" the main dignitary asked, leaning forward on the mahogany table to the slim mic.

"No, but a reliable patrol reported it."

"What exact weapons does this man have?"

"He appears to have nothing."

"Pictures? Evidence?"

"Verbal reports only, but from half the force I have here, they all say he did it ... without weapons."

Instead of expressing disbelief at Wells' words, the dignitary pushed back his chair and got up. "Who knows what they've conjured here. We should've never deployed any forces. Our economy is soaring as it is!"

A small argument ensued, the only person remaining quiet around the table a woman wearing a visored helmet. Letters and numbers flashed across her eyes' shield as she tapped the communication piece in her ear.

"Yeah, they're all arguing, Pro," she said in a confident, deeper kind of voice. "No evidence of that man. . . Oh, Stem wants it? News travels fast. . . No, I won't make you. But you'd enjoy it. Apparently there's quite a job waiting... Yeah, you too."

The commander of the newly arrived forces stood as the main dignitary was closing down the call.

"You have the go-ahead for all the men," the dignitary said. "Try to avoid conflict. Get in and assess the situation."

"We're sending all our men in?" she asked. She wore protective, shaped black armor, dark teal bodysuit, with a rank-signifying orange stripe. The big pieces of her suit were textured but the kneecaps and shoulder protectors were shinier; she had a bow-like contraption equipped with a gun-like firing chamber slung across her back. Her boots had engineered mechanisms in them to enhance her every step.

"Yes. I doubt you'll have a problem." The dignitary's lips curved in a you wouldn't, would you? expression.

"Alright. We'll be in touch."

The commander headed out of the stuffy office. This was an important assignment for her - mainly because of her history. Although her last experience had gotten her to this position, the Mainland was showing substantial trust in her by assigning her to a region-based mission.

The rumour of the man who had shot fire out of his hands was widely scoffed at among the Mainland soldiers as they marched out of the helicarrier and helicopters in ranks, into Mauville.

...

"They're coming" quickly rifled through the TR, as the civil army was calling itself, Trainers' Resistance. It didn't matter who had spotted the troops swarming out of the Mainland vehicles perched outside Mauville; only that the news reached Erick and Courtney as they continued to supervise the training. Erick had dug up a few headsets for Navs and distributed among the commanders; Courtney now asked him over the connection if they shouldn't group as close to the Commonhouse as they could and try out some of their moves on the advancing forces. They agreed to do so on the north side where they would have a shot at the newcomers and sketched out a rough plan of attack. The pokemon who had participated in the energy training as well as the flying or combat training were going to be the most useful, with those only energy trained to be a solid backdrop that would give others coverage to attack.

The soldiers not being used were quickly sent back into the casino to stay safe as Courtney and Erick each lead a warhead of civilians accompanied by their pokemon; it was an amazing sight to see such a variety of pokemon ready to work together as one.

"Alright, we'll have waters setting up 1 attacks facing the west! Energy fliers, 2 attacks as the enemy approaches!" Erick echoed her words a street over as the army hustled to get into ranks. "Fires, be in the streets with combat-only trainers and prepare to charge with 1 attacks when ordered!" Courtney was flanked by her torkoal and her two best mightyena, on a chain and snarling. They were experienced creatures, Fest and Jock. "This is not practice! This is war, for our land and pokemon!"

A shout of acclamation went up from the army and everyone broke into a jog, racing to assume their positions.

Could pokemon stand up to armour and guns? The answer was about to be discovered.

...

Wells stood in the Commonhouse's main board room, looking out the reinforced curved window set in the polished wooden walls. His nose had been twitching and itching ever since he got to this bloody region from all the strange smells.

"They're heading this way," he spoke into his Nav. The other dignitaries with him also stood around the room. The Mainland soldiers had grouped around the edge of the charred park grounds, condensing into what was left of their forces. Although about 60 men had been on bed rest comfortably within the Commonhouse, and there were dead as well, the forces still numbered about 2,500.

"I can't tell how many..." Wells trailed as he gazed through the urban wreckage of storm-battered Mauville, as the colourful blob of the opposition neared them, flooding through the streets. "But quite a few. Yes, the men have a perimeter established."

Everyone waited pensively to see what should happen when the trainers met the soldiers.

...

Courtney saw the line of black waiting for them in front of the Commonhouse, and flicked the headset channel to ON with the band on her wrist. "Fires, move to the front! Show the Mainland waiting for us with your strongest attacks! Fall back quickly, second wave of combats, fall back as well, and waters get behind enemy lines and organize yourselves to face west!"

Since Courtney had both a fire and two combats, she would be on the front lines, whereas Erick with his sealeo would be commanding the waters. She could hear him giving orders through her headset as they continued pounding down the streets, swarming over industrial blockage.

"Fires! Begin 1 attacks! Remember, our only defence is our offence!" Courtney yelled. It was true; they couldn't stop bullets with anything protective means. Bullets were natural materials too processed to be blocked by pokemon protection. The air was filled with pokemon cries as the civil army burst out into the open square, an offensive line curving 180° around the front of the Commonhouse and spewing fire like they planned to burn the city, in a great inferno as the Mainland soldiers wasted no time in firing. They couldn't possibly miss-but this fire was pokemon fire and, as Courtney rushed through, keeping pace with the blaze blasting from behind her and surging ahead of her, shielded by torkoal, the bullets whizzed and there were splattering sounds. Courtney slowed, unharmed though the gun shrieks continued to fill the air, and tried to make sense of the bullets she saw and her no downed men through the flames. In a bit of confusion she thought scatteredly that they must be incinerating the bullets before they hit their mark, but then it was time to release Fest and Jock as they neared the soldiers.

The TR dashed the last few metres , fire attacks still going, converging on all sides. Some trainers fell at close range because of the bullets, but in the split second Courtney had before Fest and Jock tore the soldier in front of her down, she saw confused hesitation in his face.

Fire attacks continued sporadically but those ranks started to drop back as everything became the confusion of battle. Gunshrieks and pokemon cries filled the air, and as Courtney saw trainers being taken down at close range she shouted, "Go for the guns!" and kept repeating the message as she let Fest and Jock take on all black-garbed enemies, torkoal steadily firing at her side. Something impacted her back and she whirled; a machoke had smashed a soldier's face in and snapped his gun so it flew into Courtney. She staggered, her back now to her mightyena as they continued their snarling assault, facing another man in black. It's good to be a woman, Courtney thought as she picked up the man's hesitation, and swung the chains she still had in her right hand so they snapped around the man's gun and whipped it out of his grasp. He dove for it, and Courtney used all her strength to whirl the two heavy chains around and gain momentum. Just as he rose, ready to fire, she heaved the snaking chains back the other way and they slapped around his head, lashing his visor to pieces. He fell as Courtney felt something splatter at her back. Torkoal had just stopped a bullet. The TR admin - that's what she was now, wasn't she? - lunged out that way with her chains and met something. "Go for their guns!" she kept yelling as she started to retrace her steps, having lost track of Fest and Jock. "Combats fall back! W1! W1!" Hopefully Erick was doing his job getting the waters in line where they needed to be.

...

A few minutes of pandemonium later and most of the fire and combat trainers were out of the square; Courtney had called them back from the west streets and instead along the north and south, so they flanked the waters and created a welcoming net for whatever was coming for them from the helicarrier.

Finally Erick made use of his headset and his attack command came through Courtney's headset; a wall of water almost as grand as what had been practiced in peace surged out from the waters with their back against the Commonhouse. As the soldiers were again thrown into confusion by such unfamiliar assault, the energy fliers dove down from the air and sniped individual targets. A proud adrenaline made Courtney's heart beat- and then the Mainland's reinforcements arrived. "F1 west! Aim for the new forces!" Courtney yelled. Her lungs would be shredded by the end of this. However, she hadn't positioned her forces in the best way and only those at the edge had the range to reach the new forces headed by a noticeable leader in flashier armour. As the new crew plowed through the disassembled old guard on the Commonhouse the waters fired again. Courtney wracked her brains for what to do as the energy fliers were shot at and pulled up. "Fires and combats, same double wave, converge around!" Courtney led her troupe, spewing fire, around in a semicircle, hoping to ring all the Mainland, but they must've seen it and spread out. Courtney's army wasn't in order and scattered fire attacks burned out as they made a kind of charge but the Mainland soldiers cut them off, firing into their ranks. "Torkoal!" Courtney gasped as screams and thunks sounded around her and trainers fell. "KEEP YOUR ATTACKS GOING!" she screamed as she saw some trainers were shell-shocked and their pokemon looked questioningly at them. Gunshrieks opposed them as the enemy solidified, kneeling and standing in alternate ranks of firing.

As more fell around her amid the chaos and some fire attacks struck up again, Courtney realized she'd have to call a retreat. She did, yelling the order into her headset and the civilians around her, ordering them to get away from the gunfire. "Get out of there," she shouted into her headset at Erick. "There's too many!"

The fires and combats evaporated into the streets; the waters were doing well at repelling the Mainland but without any help their now smaller numbers would be overcome. Erick's group spilt north, protecting themselves with outwards blasts of water attacks. Some energy fliers had the hang of blasting a shock wave or water pulse down at the target and then grabbing the soldier in talons, but most flew, milling about just out of range, following the fleeing foot soldiers.

The Mainland shot after them halfheartedly and then the new soldiers reformed ranks. Their commander turned to give instructions to some of the others about assessing damage and tending to the wounded and then headed inside the Commonhouse along with her second-in-command.

...


	70. Bodyguard

Brendan arrived in Dewford. He had never been to it before, only flown over.

When he touched down, the calm state of the city unnerved him. The neat little cottage style houses were lined on the sloping hills of the town, on curving streets and along sandy market squares. The dark 'stacks of the factories on the other side of the island, across a forested border, expelled no clouds of exhaust but for two. Brendan cautiously dismounted Swell and his bird stalked along him as he traveled the quiet streets. He saw there were lights and people inside the houses. He passed by only one woman on his way to the gym, and she didn't look at him as she hurried past.

After he knocked on the locked, closed doors, he had to wait a minute while scrabbling was heard inside.

"Who is it?" someone called excitedly from inside.

"I'm a trainer, I have news about Ld Brawly," Brendan said, recalling Swell with one hand.

The doors opened and a girl with long blue hair and thick eyeliner gave him a once over then beckoned him in. Brendan entered a system of maze-like purple halls, all stemming off an open area in which several people of importance stood, around a desk with a list on it and food, food stacked all around them to the ceiling: packaged and unpackaged both. Everyone gathered looked up.

Brendan wanted to burst out,_ I have to take that food!_, but he composed himself and dusted off his jacket.

"Are you Dewford's panel?"

"The ones cooperating, yes," the girl with the eyeliner said as she circled around to face him. "I'm Lilith. You know what happened to Brawly? We haven't got word of him or anything."

Brendan saw expressions of anxiety crossed the assembled's faces and his facial muscles inadvertently copied them. "Yes. I went with Champion Stone to battle the legendaries." He twisted his hands. "When the Kyogre went down, Steven called a retreat. A search party was sent back, but both Elite Glacia and Ld Brawly weren't found."

"What I figured," Lilith said bitterly. "After all the news of how the Champion has agreed that we be run over by the Mainland-"

"Caution, Lilith," am older lady intervened, and a small argument about things that had already happened ensued until Brendan interrupted.

"I'm sorry about Ld Brawly," he said, "I really am. I lost my dad too. I lost my best pokemon."

"That is terrible," the older woman offered sympathetically.

"And my dad is Ld Norman," Brendan finished. He thought he saw Lilith look a bit surprised. "You've heard what Magma is doing?"

"Most of the gym leaders are on their side!" another panel member said in alarm. More arguing ensued about whether to join Magma's resistance or not; it was the older lady who quieted them to hear what Brendan had to say.

"I've come because people all over Hoenn are starving," he said, "and especially in Mossdeep. The storm wrecked a lot of fields and food producing places and people can't work when their companies won't pay them. Dead fish are washing up on their shores and there's fever, in Mossdeep. They can't help themselves, and the Mainland can't help either with Magma's opposition in the way, so I ask you if you could spare food." Brendan wished he were a little more eloquent, but to his surprise the assembled people all looked at each other and more or less nodded.

"Not all of it is packaged; we still have a couple factories running. Like you said, we don't want to keep everyone working - we might need the money."

"That's alright." Brendan slung off his backpack and opened it to reveal lots of pokeballs: swellow, all the borrowed ones that Champion Stone had collected after the battle that had been sitting behind the medical counter at the League. "As long as you have it, I'll carry it."

The older lady approached him. "Why don't you have something to eat while we figure out how to divvy up all of this?" she said kindly. "We have kept the hospital's restaurant open as the emergency food centre. Come along." She put a hand on his back and they left, Lilith following.

"Thanks," Brendan said, "I am hungry." He hadn't been thinking about it but he hadn't eaten much since that night at the hospital. Once they got to Dewford's smaller medical centre and sat down in the warm, cheery cafeteria at the round tables, in the mix of a small crowd, and roasted magikarp with elak and pecha nut salad was put in front of him - it was good. He wolfed half of it down before he had the time to think about restraining himself.

"So you're Ld Norman's son. How old are you?" Lilith asked, sitting across from him. Brendan chewed and swallowed a big bite of magikarp. They were meaty fish with an almost orangey, citrusy kind of flavour. It was glorious to have his mouth full and chomp down on such a big bite, mm mm.

"Yeah, I'm his son," he said, deigning not to tell ger his age, scooping some stray pecha nuts into his mouth. "And you? A trainer?"

"Kind of," Lilith smiled but not too much, "I was a gym trainer for Brawly."

"Mm, mm," Brendan said in feigned interest, slicing up the last bit of magikarp. He leaned back as he got the last piece in his mouth. Lilith looked to be older than him, but under the makeup maybe not by a whole lot. She had a pretty face and a fit body from what he could tell.

"It's hard work, but not as hard as being the leader," Lilith went on, with an admiring kind of coyness to the way she tilted her head.

"Yup," Brendan said shortly, not interested, too many concerns: he didn't have the mental space to flirt, but Lilith went on.

"So your pokemon and your dad... both killed in the battle of the legendaries?"

"No... Both killed by Maxie, Magma's leader."

"Why? Were they resisting him?"

"No!...He has plans, plans further than helping us," Brendan said. "I don't know. But the Mainland's fighting him, so I figured we should get to feeding people."

The older lady nodded, putting a hand on Lilith's arm, which she jerked away. "That's a good idea."

Brendan finished up and the two women led him back out.

At the gym they were presented with a list of the resources that could be spared: some fish, some packaged snacks, some frozen meat dishes already seasoned.

"It should feed them people in Mossdeep," said a tough-looking man as the older lady ran through the list.

"Yes, it should. But it's a long trip. How are you planning...?"

Brendan had already opened the flap of his backpack to reveal the many pokeballs. "Borrowed swellow. There are about 20. Does anyone here fly?"

Lilith said "yeah" along with a couple others.

"If you don't have anything better to do, you could come," Brendan said.

"Sure. I'll get some rope and harnesses," Lilith said, beckoning the other volunteers to go run off somewhere.

The panel members released their various fighting types and made a rough ring as Brendan released the birds, starting with Swell and going on to the wilder ones. The flock cawed and made a ruckus but Brendan told Swell to calm them down, and it took control of the flock for the most part with some headcrest-fluffing and strutting.

Lilith and everyone else arrived back as the panel members were cautiously recalling their pokemon. Some of the swellow tried to fly off when faced with a harness, but Lilith set the example by tackling one quite fiercely and pinning it by the the throat as she jerked the buckles tight. Brendan convinced a mistrustful Swell that a harness was alright, and once he did he connected his main bird to the others by lightweight rope. As the group of about five ran around, packaging food and loading it up on the impatient birds which all continued to make little runs at each other, Brendan's Nav buzzed. He took it out.

_Just finished_, May had texted. _I won! Narrowly. What next?_

_Awesome,_ Brendan texted back, feeling a stab of jealousy. He made a face at his own emotions and continued writing a message detailing what was going on. He told May that she didn't have to join them, but she probably would.

It took a long time to get ready and several false uncoordinated starts to get the tethered birds off the ground, but eventually they made it and the swellow got up to speed, streaming through the sky, led by Swell.

...

Steven's world fell around him. It was the best way to fall. He felt this finality was fitting. Yes, fitting.

Wallace had easily KO'd his last pokemon, Armaldo. True, the former gym leader had a type advantage at every turn, but it was still an unfamiliar swirl of emotions that attacked the Champion as he lost, and lost badly, worse than he'd lost to May.

Steven stood in the metal-walled room, purple light bouncing off the octagonal panels, the wind still blowing up from the deep moat around the battle platform.

"I fall in defeat," he said, mostly to himself.

Wallace laughed abruptly, emptily. "We both do, Steven," he said, his milotic's pokeball in one hand, his fingers roving the smooth surface. "We both lose," he said in a breath.

"We do," Steven agreed.

"I should ... " a frown crossed Wallace's face as he took a step back, "get back to..." and he collapsed.

Steven ran to his side.

...

Courtney led the frantic TR back to their casino headquarters where the trainers not called to battle waited anxiously. The force stumbled in, both Courtney's command and Erick's. Chatter and concerned voices and calls of alarm sounded and some were taken by their friends, either to the apartments to rest or to the hospital down the long westward road.

Courtney and Erick left the trainers to work out what they wanted to and grouped in the one-way-mirrored overseers' room along with Marshal and Remi.

"It was going well at first," Erick said angrily, slamming his fist on the cheap metal table. "What happened with your command?!"

"We didn't expect the Mainland reinforcements to-" Courtney said back defensively.

"We could've won that if you'd held them off! What were you doing?"

"Look, I did the best I could, it was our first battle-"

"Every one counts!" Erick seethed. "We need to take the Commonhouse! That's the Mainland's power symbol-"

"You think I don't know? You think I don't want it as badly as you do?"

"No, I don't think so, by your lack of decision-making skills-"

"I didn't have time to test the range of the fires, how was I supposed to know to get closer? I could have killed more men that way!"

"Fair enough!" Marshal interjected. "We did good for the first time. Now it seems to me that we had good stuff going. The fire attacks stop their bullets. 'S the best thing. Stop their guns, they ain't gonna know what to do with themselves."

"Yeah," Remi put in. Courtney glanced at him, arm still in a sling. The boy looked like some unfortunate XP period trainer who could easily have been maimed by a level 5 poochyena, but she knew he had worked his way up into Maxie's top men because of the knack he had with pokemon. They trusted him; he had loyal fighting and ground types.

"How many killed or wounded?" Erick said. He had a big nose and forward-falling thinning brown hair.

"Haven't counted yet," Courtney retorted. "We should talk to the troops and work on strategy while we wait for Maxie."

"Maxie!" Erick stormed around the table. "If he had gotten here sooner, your leader, we might've gotten in; instead he's waltzing down 119 with Winona and -"

Courtney grabbed Erick by the collar of his bomber jacket and jerked him face to face, looking up at him. "I'd suggest you let Maxie take all the time he wants. Without him, we're dead. Let me remind you - all the power of the Groudon and the Kyogre is in him."

"Yeah," Erick said with apparent bravado, stepping away as Courtney let him go. "Let's do roll call and congratulate the trainers."

"I'll do the congratulating. You seem to be having a hard time seeing the bright side," Courtney said. Marshal and Remi followed her and Erick trailed them, snatching the enlistment papers off the desk.

...

Unbeknownst to the TR, the Mainland had suffered more than they; although a perimeter had been reestablished, many of the soldiers had leg burns. Their chest armour was heat resistant but they only had heavy knee protection plus boots below that point. Also, the water attacks had left most of the soldiers sopping wet and they and their guns had to dry off.

Of course, they were expecting Maxie's army they had seen from the air to arrive any time and attack at any moment, so it was a lot of pressure to figure out how to combat this threat. No past experience with Johto's team Rocket problems would help; they had never used pokemon to fight, they had resorted to the Mainland's weapons, and the Mainland could beat anyone at the Mainland's own game.

The army commander stood in the large board room that was filled with discussion from the united politicians, but she faced a large blackboard, helmet under an arm and back to everyone else. Despite her high rank, she was subject to what they decided to do.

She pressed a finger to her ear. "Pro, you have to stop calling me, we're in now," she said, voice easily covered by the others in the room, a smile briefly twitching across her face. "Yeah, not as easy as you'd think. They have a pokemon army. ... Oh, more than I thought. It doesn't make sense why you're not here with me." She started pacing. "... Well, I'm trying to figure this out with no pokemon!" She laughed futilely. "Is there a way to stop their attacks? ... No, people here carry them with ... Worth a try, I guess. Yeah. We'll talk later, Pro."

The army commander left the meeting room, striding down the halls to look in each room. She had to kick down some doors. It made more and more sense as she went along, find a pokemon somewhere and see how it could be fought, test it out. After she comm'd a few lieutenants the search went much faster, and eventually a voice crackled to life in her ear and told her there was a trainer being detained in a certain area in a certain room. The commander hurried there and told the waiting soldier to stay as she entered the simple office.

/

Shelley was bemoaning the fact that people thought they could toss her here and toss her there and throw her about and lock her up where they wished. She sat in one of a few uncomfortable chairs around a table, on a red rug.

When a rather heavily geared woman stepped in, Shelley snapped to attention, knowing if she got in good graces with the Mainland, maybe she could be a part of Maxie's downfall. Push your advantages, she pepped herself. Too bad it was a woman; men were easier to convince...

"You're a trainer?" the woman in the differently textured, black jointed armour said as she walked right up to Shelley, a complicated and dangerous looking weapon slung across her back.

"I am," Shelley said, straightening up. The two were of about equal height. Shelley scanned the woman's face as the woman scrutinized hers; she was older than Shelley, but aging well; she had a funny haircut (or it looked so to a non-Mainlander) styled in her blonde hair. The tips of her hair were dyed a pinkish red. Probably typical for a higher-up, Shelley thought. I might've seen her on TV or somewhere before.

"Can I see your pokemon?" the woman asked.

Shelley was about to give her a brick wall but remembered her plan. She went to a cabinet at the back of the room filled with books on politics and took her three pokeballs out of a drawer. Remaining silent as to why she had put them there, she released her crawdaunt and linoone. The crab scuttled around as the badger pokemon chased and swiped at it. "The last one needs water suspension," Shelley told the woman, who watched the two pokemon. The girl was probably ignorant where it came to pokemon.

"Please recall them. I need to use them," the woman told her.

"Fine, but they might not listen to you." Shelley did as told as the linoone started barking gruffly at Crawdaunt who had hidden under the table. "Since you're not a trainer." Shelley halfway extended the two pokeballs and one ultra ball toward the woman. "What can I call you?" she asked.

"General," the woman said shortly and took the pokeballs. "We appreciate your cooperation." She turned to go.

"Wait," Shelley said, flustered, "you think they'll really listen to you? I've had them since I was a kid. Pokemon are companions, unlike your 'animals'."

The General stopped, then motioned Shelley forward. "Yes, I have seen that," she said, and Shelley understood to follow her as she led her out of the room and past a waiting soldier to an underground storage bay that held nothing. Surprised to know there was such a secretive place in the Commonhouse, Shelley held her mouth shut as the General released her crawdaunt in the utilitarian concrete room.

"What have you seen done to stop a pokemon attack?" the General asked her.

"Evasiveness stat, protect..." Shelley started listing.

"Protect. Oh, yes. I mean physically, something that humans might have at their disposal without pokemon."

"Is this about Maxie, General?"

The woman flinched visibly. "It's about the pokemon army that trainers are bringing against us."

Shelley decided she was in a good enough position to maneuver. "So you're trying to kill pokemon."

"Yes... Better them than their trainers." The General looked at the crab pokemon. "Surf," she told it. Shelley was surprised the the Mainlander would even know a basic pokemon attack, but Crawdaunt only paused its scuttling to fix her with its beady eyes.

"I don't know why I should help you," Shelley half-laughed, crossing her arms.

"You have a choice right now," the General said to her. "Choose wisely. I'm offering you the opportunity to be on the winning side."

"Oh, the 'winning' side," Shelley said mockingly, but figured she'd overdone it as she watched the General's expression harden. "Of course," Shelley tacked on hurriedly, "It would be interesting if you did manage to put down a pokemon army."

"It will be more humanely done if you talk with me," the General said.

Shelley nodded briskly. "I accept then."

The General launched into a description of the attacks of the TR against the Mainland forces, explaining in much detail what she had seen in up-close combat. When the info dump ended Shelley tried to come up with an impressive way of wording what she had to say.

"It sounds like they were using combined fire attacks and water attacks," Shelley started.

"That much is obvious."

"Possibly surf and flamethrower, or maybe fire blast as well," Shelley continued. "Could even be water spout, with how high you say the water went. Can't you shoot through the attacks?"

"Blindly, through water, and our bullets disintegrate in the fire. Which is not normal, because they're heatproof to a high degree."

"It's pokemon attacks," Shelley shrugged. "Is the outside of a bullet metal?"

"A compound, but fairly pure. Two metals I believe. A simple technological advancement."

"That might be why. Pokemon attacks won't touch plastic but they can blow iron and steel to bits." Shelley felt smart. "So, you would have to get pokemon with protect, to stop their attacks. That's the only way."

"Getting pokemon is out of the question," the General said, and it was her turn to sound mocking. "But we'll swap our loadout... As much as we can spare. However much Peids might not like it, we'll have to strike first to have the advantage..."

"If you'd like," Shelley ventured, "I'm not a trained fighter, but Crawdaunt knows protect. I could be your bodyguard."

The General glanced at the redhead and her crab.

"Protect us, Crawdaunt!" Shelley told her pokemon. It scuttled quickly towards them and put up a shield of blue energy. The General flinched but then stood steady. Crawdaunt let the barrier fall and the General handed Shelley her pokeballs.

"Yes, follow me," she said, and marched up the stairs leading out, confusing Shelley at first by talking out loud as if someone else had entered, but she figured out it was via the General's earpiece.

The redhead put on a dutiful expression. She was in now. Some armour, a gun, and once she saw Maxie, he was done for.


	71. I Don't Want the Cape

Maxie, Winona and Juan circled Mauville's outer ring of cheap dwellings, leading the Fortree civilian army, and Sootopolian recruits who had abandoned the absurd idea that the Mainland would actually pull through on building the imaginary 'Lilytree' in time.

Maxie talked shortly with Courtney on his Nav and took the lead to the apartments and the casino and the street filled with the other half of the TR, milling around with their pokemon and talking animatedly amongst themselves.

The two parts of the alliance came face to face; there was a brief moment of silence and then the sides started mixing, hand shaking and greetings passed between those who knew each other, introductions being made for both people and pokemon.

Maxie didn't detain himself; he went through the crowd straight to the casino. Regional casinos had no fancy lights or anything; this one had a dark purple roof and dark purple supports at intervals along its facade, nothing fancy. He entered, Winona behind him. Only Erick and Stan and Remi were waiting there and they quickly informed him that Courtney was continuing training in the exercise field down some avenues with Marshal to help the combat/energy trainers. Maxie listened to Erick blabber on about the different classifications that had been made and the battle that had been fought.

"If you had gotten here sooner, would've been appreciated," Erick said pointedly.

"Did you lose many?" Maxie asked.

"About 20 dead, counting pokemon and humans," Erick replied. Stan and Remi nodded along and Stan waltzed over to some roulette tables. Remi spun them with his uninjured arm and Stan threw his knives, trying to hit the marill slot.

"Why are you complaining?" Maxie said with a short laugh. "That's a welcome total."

"And we didn't get into the Commonhouse," Erick said, like Maxie had interrupted him.

"20 isn't a terrible price to pay for a good plan, which I'm sure you have...?"

"Courtney's out running drills, we haven't talked about further plans," Erick said. He turned to Winona and introduced himself. Maxie sighed through his nose and left the building to go to the exercise field.

Courtney had her back to him as she directed a drill, flying types versus land-bound pokemon. Marshal stood far away on the other side of the field, and Maxie sat on a wood and iron park bench. The trees dotting the perimeter of the exercise field had all been battered down by the cyclone, but Maxie didn't need shade because of the ash in the air. Still, it was hot and stuffy.

He listened to his second in command shout orders as the hovering pokemon, riderless, beelined down, shooting transenergy attacks out in front of them. Trainers prompted the wall of land based defenders to put up protect shields as well as a fearsome wall of fire attacks. The clashing fronts of blazing energy collided somewhere near the midfield line at an imaginary group of opponents.

The pokemon lent their energy to sustaining the assault until Courtney called, "Good!", and the pokemon wheeled about in the sky to return to their trainers. The grass underneath was blackened and bent already from the practice.

Approaching Courtney from behind, Maxie touched her shoulder to bring her whirling around.

"You didn't get hurt?" the much taller man asked.

"No," she said. Her eyes darted this way and that before refocusing on him. "Are we going to try getting into the Commonhouse again?"

"We'll plan it. My men are unloading the food we hauled here; I'd switch out yours for mine and you could run them and Winona through whatever commands you're using. When you're done, we can talk at the casino," Maxie briefed her.

"We could use a rest," Courtney agreed, referring to the troops under her command.

"Can you afford it, though? Do you have enough food in reserve?"

Courtney frowned a bit. "I don't know," she said. "There are others taking care of it at the apartments." She motioned to the buildings on the side of the street, halfway down the block.

"I doubt the Mainland would have kept many soldiers parked with their helicopters," Maxie commented before walking away, "they think this is just a game."

/

Courtney looked after him for a moment and then turned to the gathered TR.

"Alright! You're free for the night! Good work!" Courtney dismissed the assembled civilians. A mass exodus of pokemon and their trainers ensued. Marshal made his way to her through the crowd. She asked him to go and check on the state of food with the supervisors at the apartment, which he did a bit begrudgingly. At least they had born fighters; rumour had it that Marshal used to be part of a covert operation having to do with XP needles and pokemon auctioning. At least they had some who wouldn't lose their minds in the thick of it. Courtney knew she had done an alright job for her first time in such a melee, but it was clear that others had topped her performance.

As soon as Maxie felt secure enough to spare a quantity of blood and a couple days' recovery - then she would be worthy of her post.

...

Brendan had to keep alert on top of Swell; the flock of birds was raucous at times, and if one started jostling against its tethers, it spread through the network. It was not an enjoyable ride as Brendan had to keep craning his neck around to check on his carrier pokemon. It turned out that the Dewford residents had decided not to come along after all. Guess they havedone enough.

More than once a bout of coughing struck him as the ash filled air whipped into his mouth and through his nasal passages. He felt oddly relieved when he saw a dark spot approaching from the east, and it flew to join him within the course of a quarter of an hour.

Tropius' four thick, green, veined wings buffeted as May kept up with him at the head of the flock.

"Need me to carry something?" she yelled at him, pigtails streaming behind her in the wind.

"No, I'm alright, I'll get this to Mossdeep," he shouted back.

"Are you sure?" she returned. "Oh and I wanted to say that Ninetales helped a lot!"

"Good! Maybe you should go back and see your dad and my mom," Brendan hollered.

"You sure you can get this?"

"Yeah, I'll head back as soon as I can."

"Maybe I should come."

"It won't take long, and back in Verdanturf you can see what's going on in Mauville."

"OK, I'll keep you posted!" May shouted finally as she let Tropius drop below the widespread net of swellow, heading southwest for the hospital between Verdanturf and the epicentre of Hoenn's conflict.

...

Steven carried Wallace to his back room and was going to try and revive the man, but the alert on his Nav signalling a new challenger buzzed. He left him slumped on the red loveseat in the main space and hurried back off, texting the three Elite that there wouldn't be an entrance exam for a little while.

He defeated the challenger, a man in his late 20s with decent pokemon but unprepared tactic-wise to fight all of Steven's high levelled pokemon.

About to return to his back room and feeling some sense of confidence from defeating the challenger, Sidney instead came in to ask him if they should run the entrance exam, one of them. Steven said no, a challenger should see an Elite for the first time when they first battle them and their own pokemon. He received a video call from his father: last goodbyes, he was being taken to the Mainland by private helicopter. It was a warmly stiff call, because Morty wasn't a sentimental man, and neither was his son; at least both knew what the other felt.

As Steven caught his breath and adjusted to the fact that Devon corporation no longer existed, another challenger was coming through. It seemed like the young girl was going to make it to the Champion, but Drake's altaria took her pokemon out.

Whether there was someone else coming or not, Steven allowed himself to hurry back off to Wallace after stopping in the kitchen to grab some cold fried fish on a dark blue plate. He propped the limp man up and tried talking him awake, but that didn't work, so he put him in a chair at the big metal table (carrying him wasn't heavy, just a challenge with his long limbs dangling). Plate in place, Steven poured a cup of water from the silver faucets on the back wall's gleaming counter and threw it in the former gym leader's face.

Wallace came to, spluttering.

"You're welcome," Steven said with cheer. "If you keep blacking out on me, the waking methods are just going to get worse. Eat up."

Wiping his dripping face with the hem of his stretchy shirt, Wallace looked at his friend then down at his plate then back up again. Steven had gone to his room. When the Champion returned, he had something voluminous and white slung over an arm and Wallace's plate was still untouched.

Steven leaned on the other side of the table. "You have defeated me," he said with seriousness, "But I don't think the government will let you apply for my job at this time, so eat."

Wallace looked at the fish.

"You can't wear the cape until you do," Steven taunted, half playful. It was the Champion's cape but Steven hated it; he never wore it.

"I don't want the cape. Or the job, I just wanted to battle you," Wallace said.

"I know," Steven said exasperatedly, sitting down. "Of course I know, Wallace." He contained a roaring sigh and flung the cape across the table. It arced over Wallace to land on the red loveseat. "You'd look better in it than I ever would," the Champion commented sotto voce.

Wallace remained static.

"Go on, eat. You can't faint away whenever you like. I can't sling you over my shoulder and ride off into the sunset, especially when you can beat the ancients out of me in battle." Steven's hand was clenched on the table.

"I can't..." Wallace trailed.

"Why not?" the Champion said, growing tired of his friend's resistance.

"Not when ... I can't, I never do when it's like this and I'm useless, I have to be better," he said in a rush, a patter of words. "It happens, I just..." Wallace's eyes were red as he stood up and pushed the plate away.

Steven matched his speed, standing up and jabbing the edge of the plate at his chest. "I normally wouldn't say this - but damn you, Wallace, EAT! You're right, you are useless, to me, to everyone, depressed like this!"

Wallace stumbled backward, supporting himself on the back of the red loveseat. He had a helpless expression and there were tears pushing at the confines of his eyes. "I'm not going to the Mainland, Steven," he said with stark fear and conviction that made the Champion take a step back, "I'm not going there to be hated by my own parents, to be alone in the worst way, I won't be anything-you're at least a gemologist! I gave up my life of competitive dance for pokemon training and do you know what it will be like, being forced back to the Mainland?" Wallace was pleading now, water dripping down his cheeks. "Everyone I used to know will be in the spotlight and the front rows and I'll be the traitor, in the back, and I'll have nothing! No one! No family, not Milotic, not you. And I'll deserve to be shunned, yes, because I can't be a Mainlander and I won't- So why should I-" -he was talking more to himself now, "-why should I live?" Wallace's words tremored up to the tall ceiling as he looked aside.

Steven couldn't answer. He put the plate back on the metal table. It was true, he had gemmology to fall back on. He could at least enjoy himself in Sinnoh, with Cynthia as a friend.

"But I can," Wallace said very quietly as he moved to the table and sat down. "I have to keep on. Until-! At least I can go with a clear conscience." He laughed suddenly, without mirth, as he speared a piece of fish on the fork. "You know I was the fat kid, a long time ago," Wallace said conversationally, as mad tears streamed from his eyes, "fat, at least, for dance. And you know how you stop being fat, Steven. You choose to feel so terrible and awful and worthless that you can't eat, however much you try."

He laughed sharply again. He ate in a choking way.

Steven swallowed. With Morty Stone gone, Steven knew that they were still father and son, that they would look for a way to see each other again. Yes, when Steven had decided to pursue a League career, Mr Stone had been upset, but they talked about it and came to an understanding. How could a parent be so cruel as to remove themselves from their child's life over a career choice, and one forced by injury at that?

Steven's Nav buzzed and had to leave his friend, and there was a disturbed twisting in his throat for everything he now knew.

...

As night fell and Brendan was nearing Mossdeep, the Mauville TR half was coming back from a raid of the Mainland helicopters; not the helicarrier, it had moved to the hospital between Mauville and Verdanturf to take up passengers. Obviously they figured their forces wouldn't need a emergency evacuation.

At any rate, Marshal and Juan, who led the raid, decided not to go chasing after the carrier for the big haul. They didn't want to take sustenance from the sick and dying. Well, maybe they would want to later when food ran low, but it wasn't a good decision.

Leaving the few men and pilots manning the helicopters in shame, the groups of the best men and their pokemon made a loud way back, having discovered some brandy. Fermented drink was not common in Hoenn and some of the younger people had never had a sip; thankfully, a sip was all they got so that their elders who knew what it was could have some.

Meanwhile, Courtney had finished running the new trainers through the commands and Erick had helped divvy them up by their pokemon. Now she sat exhausted in the casino's cheap office with Maxie, Erick and Winona.

Her leader's plan was simple: attack as soon as possible. Winona seconded it and Erick and Courtney agreed as long as there was a viable plan, which they proceeded to draw up. They had greater numbers than the Mainland, and that was an advantage they would use to back the forces up against the Commonhouse and surround them on all sides.

"We'll get in, and defend," Maxie explained. "How the Mainland will respond is a mystery, but we'll have the clear upper hand to people all across Hoenn."

"Of course, but will the Mainland continue their ministrations to the thousands of people in need? We have to get out terms over to their table," Winona said. "We can't barge into the Commonhouse and kick everyone out. We have to let them go with a clear, clear message of why we are here to stay."

Maxie nodded a bit impatiently. "Indeed," he said, "and then we can sit in their building and wait for them to cave in and accept."

"Or bully them in. They could send more forces," Erick noted.

"They could, we can only be prepared," Maxie returned, standing. "I suggest we get some rest, then, and attack early."

Courtney stood in accord and followed him out.

...

Hoenn lay dark and quiet, giving up a battle against calamity, or waiting for the battle to be fought, waiting for its fate to be decided.

Except for Verdanturf. The helicarrier had dropped in only a half hour after May arrived at the Suru's, where Prof Birch and Mrs Mayer had just arrived, back from the hospital. They were more than a little upset, having found their children gone and only a semi-reassuring text message on their Navs. But as May sat at the Suru's kitchen table and tried to maintain conversation like outside the four walls was just as stable as inside, and her father entered, she ran to him and hugged him and he was elated that she had beaten Steven.

She spent the next while talking to Mrs Mayer, telling her about Brendan's flight with emergency vittles to Mossdeep. Wally's coughing from down the hall provided background noise in the less-tidy-than-usual dwelling; eventually Mr Suru and Prof Birch excused themselves.

The kitchen light was sheathed in a wood-and-paper globe with a red triangle painted on it, casting a warm light about the cozy dining area.

Mrs Mayer had her head in her hands, mussing her long dirty blonde hair. She still wore her casual nurses' clothes. "I just don't know, May," she was saying, "I just don't know about Brendan."

May felt pretty awkward. Just when she was of age to start being more of a friend and less of a child to Brendan's mom, the family was undergoing crisis.

"He's gotten these ideas about saving things and people! Do you know where they've come from? Is it the experience period?"

Mrs Mayer looked so concerned and at the end of her wits that May was afraid to answer.

"It... Well, he's seen how it happened," May said. "He's been in the thick of it. Like we saw in Mauville-"

"Why can't he just stay with us? Stay safe. Why would he meddle with the people who-who killed my husband-" Mrs Mayer's voice broke. May sat in empathetic silence. Finally Mrs Mayer looked at May. "He seems to want to work with you, May, and I have to ask you, please - please, convince him to come back here, so when the Mainland comes for us, we can stay together."

May could only think of how she had talked him into doing the exact opposite of what Mrs Mayer had just intimated to her.

"May, you might not know," the older woman started, a hand raking through her hair, the lines under her eyes accented by lost sleep, "But he... He does have a medical condition. It's nothing quite so serious-" She broke off as Wally's coughing sounded like a jammed processing machine. "But it's enough that he has ideas, sometimes, and it's hard to reign him in. He has these ideas, and..."

"And you'd prefer they just stay ideas?"

"Yes," Mrs Mayer said with a sigh, "Oh, yes, May."

"I should get to bed," May said apologetically.

"Of course." Mrs Mayer summoned somewhat of a smile as May pushed in her chair and headed to the spare bedroom she and Mrs Mayer shared.

A lone murmur followed her as she went.

"Whatever am I going to do, Norman?"

As May was tucking herself in, there was a distant thrumming, which quickly grew in volume until it was the thick and fast clapping of a helicarrier, up close. A breeze dashed in through the open window, blowing the flowery curtains aside, and May ran and looked out the window, brushing away the drying flora hanging from the curtain rod.

Her window faced the path back to Mauville, and there was a black blot against the navy blue of the sky, with lights shining out of ports and windows in its side. The Mainland had come. Come to take them? May frantically texted Brendan and her dad, afraid to move from the room in a paralyzing moment of realization.

It was happening. She was really going to be taken away.

...

Brendan had never been to Mossdeep, and as he arrived there in the early evening he received a much different impression than May's. In the throes of fever, starvation, and decomposing yannan trees due in part to the dead fish washing up on the shores, the streets were mostly quiet, the houses torn and battered worse than in Mauville, brown and rotten yannan debris fluttering and cluttering the avenues. Brendan landed his pod of swellow in front of the gym and spent a few minutes calming them all down. But after hammering at the doors no one answered. The pokemon centre stood open and empty; the Pokemart gutted of its inventory.

Awkwardly leading the tethered birds along the streets and trying not to be creepy by looking into the houses, some of which were boarded up and some of which had faces peering out at him, Brendan made his way to the SPERC, the tall, impressive facility, windowed with jutting metal cornicing.

It was here that everything was happening; the SPERC had been made into a condensed version of Mossdeep. It was filled with people; sick people, people marketing food, on different floors different things; it was a hospital, a trade center, a cemetary.

There was not much order.

Brendan told Swell to stay outside as he pushed his way through the people, wandering the levels in search of some person of authority. There were fights here and there and people breaking up fights, and a lot of sick people, rashes on their skin and lying on rows of beds in former research rooms.

At last Brendan reached a room with the doors closed, marked to be the library, around which a group of yelling, protesting citizens gathered. Brendan shoved his way through, and got shoved at, before he caught the drift among the noise that their panel was inside. The crowd hurled furniture and equipment at the solid doors but they only shuddered under the blows, barricaded from the inside.

"Stand back!" Brendan yelled at everyone, and annoyed them enough that they paused their assault for a moment. He faced the kenoa wood doors and threw fire out of his body, fuelling the blaze as it consumed the barrier. The crowd jumped back with screams and, as Brendan shut off the flames and went through the gaping smoking entrance, split. Half dashed after him and half hung back, dazed by what had just happened.

The panel stood there, a group of officiously dressed and nervous looking people. A coffin sat beside them and as the crowd rushed at them they cowered around it like it was a talisman to protect them. The infuriated people stopped short of Liza's resting place.

"I brought food!" Brendan shouted in the slim window of time he had before the enraged Mossdeep dwellers destroyed their cowardly panel.

"What?!" everyone said.

"I brought food from Dewford. Outside. On swellow-"

That was all it took. Brendan left 10 minutes later. He recalled all the swellow into their pokeballs and put them in his backpack as he again flew off on Swell, without so much as a glance from the people swarming around the food he'd brought them.

He was angry, because they weren't grateful, and because probably much of it would go to waste. Famished brains don't think of others. Maybe he and May had done a little good, but - he was angry, as he flew back to Verdanturf in the darkening night.

...

...


	72. Reconnaissance, or Not?

The TR was up at 4 am, roused by their units of command: there were six different sectors of the army, and each was debriefed by their leader on what they would be accomplishing this day. Their forces were about 6,000 strong; they had slept in whatever building they could all along the casino avenue and now filled the streets, the dawn light battling the ash for skyspace.

Maxie didn't give any fancy speech; a current of eager readiness already charged the ranks. They knew what they were fighting for.

Winona's troupe, troupe 3, was the first to take off: into the air. They flew south, not heading straight for the eastern Commonhouse.

Troupes 2 and 4 left next, sacrificing speed for silence, pokemon still in pokeballs.

Maxie checked the wireless Nav piece strapped on his wrist was turned on, and he and Marshal, with Juan commanding troupe 3 alongside them, headed straight east through the streets, quietly at first as the mass of trainers could. Crobat pulled itself along by the talons on its dark purple wings; Maxie was depending on its sharp senses to notice when they were noticed.

The TR leader stood straight; he wore slacks and tall boots and his charcoal-and-coral jacket but without the Magma logo. It had been rather fun surprising Steven Stone at the Commonhouse, and he wondered idly if Steven had connected the dots and placed him as the mysterious leader of team Magma.

The march continued for a few blocks until suddenly Crobat gave a short supersonic keening sound, and a black shape darted across the intersection ahead. Maxie shouted, "Onward!" and the attack front of the TR released a cacophony of pokemon as they catapulted into a forward rush, yells and shouts for freedom filling the air.

The Mainland had scrambled to get their soldiers together; they had assumed that the trainers had been scared off and were sleeping in.

...

In Verdanturf, the 'passport office' was being set up in the Pokemon centre. Guards patrolled the streets, and standard issue suitcases, on the small size, were being handed out to everyone. All were told to stay in their houses and at the Surus everyone occupied themselves with meaningless motions and tasks to pass the time. What could they do but wait for things to happen?

May texted Brendan: he said he was on his way. His mom wanted him there. But May was sure he shared the same sentiment as her and her father: I am not freakin' leaving Hoenn, especially not with Maxie and his army on the loose!

The Surus, conversely, were anxious to leave on the helicarrier; Wally languished with laboured breaths in his room and the sooner they could get him to adequate healthcare, the better. Families wouldn't be split, so the Mainland had promised.

Professor Birch paced and May watched her dad. He had been examining Swampert's body at the hospital until they kicked him out to have more space for humans. He reported having found nothing abnormal, physically, except certain energy-processing organs near the surface of the skin much enlarged.

He had already told May that he would stick it out until the Mainland dragged him off. "It's the land; it's the pokemon," he had told her, "and, you know, I'm not sure if this Maxie has the completely wrong idea in fighting against the demolition of Hoenn."

"Demolition?" May had asked.

"What do you think they'll do with it?" Professor Birch had shrugged, lost. "Devon's gone now. They'll probably raze our cities and scavenge what's left, leave it to grow wild, restrict any visitors."

The Professor's job was to know the land and its inhabitants. The symbiotic relationship was simply in his nature. May didn't know how he could leave it, either, except that he would need to.

Black-armoured guards continued their patrol outside and all the cooped up people in Verdanturf waited, pensively, for direction; a direction that would drag them away from home, or convince them to join the rebellion.

...

Fire pokemon charged behind Maxie as he unleashed flames, as they burst out into the front trampled lawns of the Commonhouse. The Mainland soldiers were waiting and immediately the air filled with gunshrieks, which the pokemon quickly combatted by releasing their flamethrowers out in a wide, bright front that destroyed bullets midflight. The rippling wall of fire pressed hotly against the Mainland troops as the TR kept coming, the fire pokemon spreading out to surround them. However the TR's lines were broken on one end from a surprise force stationed inside the half-demolished gym. Black-garbed soldiers burst out, firing slimmer, more blocky guns, out of which hurtled strange clear bullets that stuck into pokemon and trainers.

Torkoal, magcargo, combusken, every species of fire type native to Hoenn redirected their attacks under urging from their trainers, but the new bullets passed through the flame and hit nearer targets. Pokemon fell, writhing for a few seconds before becoming still. The trainers broke into a panic.

However, on the other fronts, the Mainland soldiers were pushed into retreat back against the Commonhouse, only some managing to squeeze out the side before the ring of fire closed off their escape. Lessons had been learned; Courtney efficiently urged the fire energies on, with more direct category 2 attacks.

The pod of Mainland soldiers cut off from the rest mounted a charge against the backs of the ring of fire, joined by some off-duty reinforcements that had been slumbering in the helicarrier behind the Commonhouse. Courtney pressed the button on her wireless wristpiece.

"2 and 4, good to go," she said, putting her mouth close to the mic, as she dodged around soldiers trying to get a clear shot, whirls of fire and pokemon, her mightyena circling around her and lunging at any Mainland man who came close. The wolves were efficient; one leaped on his head and the other helped drag him down, claws digging in through armour, and then they were yowling around to Courtney's other side. She tried to keep her sense of direction; gunshrieks were coming from both directions. _Anytime now, 2 and 4._

"Be ready, 3," she heard Maxie's voice come crackling through her wristband, ducking under fire. One of her wolves leaped over her; flame twisted past and she coughed, staying low and tripping on a gun dropped by Mainland soldier nearby. She looked at it stupidly for a moment and then caught it up, getting a handle on the smooth, contoured weapon. It was fairly light. She rested the bulk of it with the blue-glowing energy chamber on her shoulder, saw a trainer cover his face as his Ninetales howled, a shot hitting its shoulder from a bunch of three soldiers advancing. Courtney pointed the gun in that direction and grappled with the trigger; it required two fingers on either side of a sliding piece to fire. The shriek was piercing in her ear and the backlash rocked her, but she hit one of the Mainland soldiers. Sweeping in a circle and almost getting burnt by a fire blast rushing by, she followed up as her mightyena tore the other men down. Immediately she was bowled over by a camerupt fleeing from something and had to right herself, fumbling to regain her grip on her weapon. Just then there was a boot in her back and a gun in her face as she squirmed around, but Fest pinned the soldier on the ground in a blur of black and white. With speed she didn't know she had she pushed herself up, ordered Fest off, and shot the soldier. She got back up to her feet, ready for the next man - "2 and 4, get the bloody hell on with it!" crackled angrily through her wrist piece. An explosion rocked her ears as a few trainers and their magmortar shielded her briefly.

As the outer edges of the TR started to scatter under the double-sided attacks, 2 and 4 swarmed in like pincers from the sides.

"1 3 and 5! Out!" barked Maxie over the communication devices.

"Back! Out!" Courtney yelled at the fires all around her, and they started bunching back to where they had came as the waters surged in from the north and south. On command, the larger horde of water types issued a tidal wave forward as they charged at the Mainlanders, who only had time to fire off a round before they were knocked off their feet by the cascades of water thrown at them from opposing directions. Pokemon roared and trumpeted and screeched; the fires beat as quick a retreat as they could. It was like releasing an ocean out of a bottle as the pokemon kept pouring into their transenergy attacks, saturating the area so fast that it was like a lake as the tides flooded outward as fast as they could go, not fast enough.

As Mainlanders were swept under the currents, the flying troupe dived down from the air-releasing the final blow, shock wave attacks. The bird pokemon pulled up, trainers mounted, skimming the foaming waters as they electrocuted the floundering soldiers in the vicinity, and pumped back up into the sky, only to spot the next target.

Screams and shouts sounded as many of the Mainland forces were electrified and the waters lessened their attacks, the huge amount of water released gushing out into the grid of the city, eager to overtake and flood its streets. Some soldiers rose from the confused torrents only to be knocked down by aerial attackers.

Water sloshed and rushed around Courtney's knees as she slogged after her mightyena, away from the Mainlanders. Trainers surrounded her, some of their fire pokemon collapsing from the water type attacks. As she saw some stall and fight back against the tides for their companions, she screamed, "Just recall your pokemon!" and kept heading for higher ground.

...

Maxie watched the confusion from atop Crobat. The fire trainers were all recalling their pokemon as they fled, but they wouldn't be needed. Bodies of Mainland soldiers lay in the newly created marsh, settling as Maxie called troupes 2 and 4 off. The flying groups circled overhead as the battlefield was still, and then in a moment a shout of exultation went up from the TR. Maxie urged Crobat to swoop low over the conquered foes, heading for the Commonhouse, and the victorious army started to surge after him.

...

Wells and company fled the building out the back; some of the Mainland soldiers who had gotten inside followed them. The Commonhouse sucked the TR in and pushed their enemies out; the Mainlanders jammed into their helicopters, leaving the monolithic helicarrier, and one by one a few of the aerial vehicles took off as the triumphant trainers took possession of the building.

Maxie established himself quickly in the large board room. He ran his fingers along the ornate carving of the rows of chairs and sweeping desks and examining the fabricated designs in the carpet while he waited for the co-captains to join him.

Eventually they all arrived, Winona, Erick, Courtney and the rest.

"We've done it," Erick panted. He had a bandage around his arm; Stan was absent due to a leg injury, but everyone else was unarmed. The thrumming of fleeing helicopters faded away in their hearing.

"No doubt the Mainland is reeling, at a distance," Winona said.

"Do you think the plan of attack worked well?" Maxie said to her.

"Of course," she said, sweeping off her aviator's cap to let her long mauve hair swing free. Her thick lace-up boots were muddied so you couldn't tell they were a baby blue underneath.

"I agree, and fail to see how it could have been executed while my powers were ... Restricted."

"It's noble of you to think of the greater good," Winona said, deferentially, but with the complete opposite sentiment in her eyes.

Maxie sighed and turned his attention away from her. Skeptics would be skeptics. "If my powers should harm anyone, it would harm myself first," he said.

"And then how many," he heard the woman murmur under her breath.

Maxie couldn't take it. "Do you want to win this freedom fight or not?!" he thundered at the leaders assembled. He paced along the length of the windows that looked out over Mauville.

"I completely, um, have my trust in your capabilities," Erick said.

"Powers," Marshal growled approvingly.

"So what now?" Erick said.

Maxie turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "See to the wounded, count our losses, and raid the helicarrier. We'll need food. And expect newsmen to show up anytime. Courtney, please see to food distribution. My troupe is already escorting those still in the apartments here; Marshal, establish a perimeter, and Juan, take care of cleaning up the front lawn. Winona, please take a roll call. Erick, you may handle any politics that arise. Remember, we are Hoenn's only hope now. Our pokemon, our land: Mauville is a place of refuge for those who wish to remain free."

"And we'll keep it that way," Courtney said with a small salute.

"Any... of the comments on the battle?" Juan asked uncertainly.

"No," Maxie said, "It went excellently. Don't you think?"

"We have to keep watch on the Mainland for when they catch on to our tricks and find a way to fight pokemon attacks," Winona said.

So critical, Maxie thought, annoyed. "We have time, Winona. It won't be a quick fix for the Mainland."

"Them plastic bullets-" Marshal started.

"Were obviously limited in supply, and though deadly, they are easily stopped by a tidal wave, I should imagine."

"Reconnaissance would still save lives," Winona pushed.

"The Mainland has us beat in reconnaissance," Maxie snapped back, "their technology is far more advanced. Check this building for bugs, if you will, but we can't spare any trainers to be spies. The effort would be futile in the face of further combat advances."

Courtney exited the great senate room first, and one by one they filtered out until Erick and Winona were left.

"What are you going to do," Winona said, not having moved an inch.

"Work, like the rest."

"What work?"

"I'm going to fly out to surrounding areas shortly. Make people aware of our victory," Maxie said shortly. As Winona remained immobile Maxie marched past her. He looked back as he was about to step out. "Would you prefer that task?"

"Roll call is good," Winona said, finally moving to leave.

Maxie walked quickly to put space between them, heading off to the back entrance where he needed to talk to Courtney alone.

...

The Mainland troops, or what was left of them, shuttered away in their helicopters, flying over the westward path to where the helicarrier was roosted outside of Verdanturf.

Shelley was still at the general's side. She was proud that her crawdaunt had saved both their lives a few times. The general was piloting the helicopter, talking over the bulky headphones and mic as she maneuvered the noisy machine lower. It was crowded with soldiers and Shelley felt privileged to warrant a seat; or maybe it was just so she was singled out and the other Mainlander soldiers could treat her like she wasn't there.

She had been given a gun, and some armor they'd found to fit her; the weapon was light and easy to fire, but she hadn't used it, they hadn't gotten close enough to Maxie. She had nearly been carried away and had almost ran from General Ari but no, Ari's target was not the man in charge, and she'd had to stay with her. Now Shelley wondered if she should have simply booked it for Maxie.

It was too noisy to be heard, the chopper's blades slashing at Shelley's hearing, but she had an idea. A suggestion.

Her heart lurched in her throat as they touched down, but it was a smooth landing. All the Mainland soldiers moved for the exits on either side of the copter. Shelley eased up; she'd been holding tightly to the armrests of her seat. It was her first time flying, and it hadn't been as exhilarating as she'd expected.

"You can accompany me, Shelley," the general told her as she punched some buttons, threw some switches and stood as well. The whirs of the helicopter blades were slowing to distinguishable throps.

"Yes," Shelley said as she followed her commander, "actually, for that battle, I have a suggestion."

"I don't need your suggestions," General Ari turned on her, visored helmet tucked under an arm as she grabbed her bow weapon from a holding place on the wall. The two headed down the metal stairs sticking out the helicopter and set foot on solid ground, the other air vehicles parked beside them and the helicarrier's three-story, city-block long bulk ahead of them.

The Mainland soldiers were organizing themselves and already carrying the wounded over to the helicarrier, which was staffed with medical professionals, but the General didn't concern herself with that as she swept through the midst of the black-armoured men, locating Wells and a few of his colleagues who had managed to escape and board the helicopters.

Together, the politicians and the general headed toward one of the lower helicarrier ports. As they neared the massive humming hulk Shelley could see the blotchy patterns and rivets and huge pieces of metal that made up the thing. Where did you make a piece of metal that large, and how did you move it?

General Ari said a few words over her in-ear comm, and then the port doors opened and everyone filed into a round little room that shot up a shaft to the human living levels of the helicarrier. The loud and jangling engine noises were overpowering on ground floor but as they stepped into a tiled hallway, lights in strips along the walls, strange soft music played and Wells led the way, General Ari following just behind.

...

The soft music originated from the grand room the pod of officials was let in to at the end of a carpeted hallway. It was a room in the shape of a squashed dome, with one bulging wall a tall egg-shaped grid of windows from which one could observe those running around on ground level outside. The ceiling was relieved in complex patterns of ivory and wood; bookshelves lined one wall and technology the other; underfoot was a thick rug and in the middle of the room a long shining table with chairs around it. Four people stood at different places, and moved to welcome Wells and the rest with tight expressions.

Shelley felt a bit awkward as there were not enough chairs for her and she stood behind General Ari, but no one paid her any notice as the forum commenced.

The man who commenced it was portly, with loose fat that jiggled off his chin and cheeks and a vain little combing of grey hair atop his head, wearing a shiny blue suit.

"So, Wells, you've made it back earlier than expected," the man said in a thick voice, no doubt from the lard pushing on his vocal folds.

"I regret to say I have," Wells said. "We did good work while we were there-"

"And you were supposed to remain there, keeping these trainers-" the man made running motions with his fingers and swept his hand to and fro, "-in check, as we take the ones who will cooperate. Which brings me to you, General Ari." The man's eyes took on a spiteful look, like if you have just taken an ababan fruit away from a Vigoroth and he plans to get it back. "You know you a fortunate girl to have been assigned this mission, where others are ... more fit, to take your place."

"Mr. Symmes, your area of expertise is politics, and while we do value that," she said in a bit of a flat tone, "The decisions of the Secretary of Defence seem to override yours in the subject of who is fit for this project."

"But have you talked with the Defence department since your failure," Symmes wheezed nasally, "no, I have had to. It does come down to this: you failed. To keep these meddlesome little 'pokemon'-loving regionals out of one building. One building." Symmes' spittle showed on the surface of the polished wood, and he wiped it off with a critical glare at everyone. "The war they have started," he continued, "is the best chance we have of suppressing those who aren't following orders. Am I clear? And you didn't take advantage of their attacks against you."

"Give me a few hundred more, and a couple days," Ari began.

"No, no, no, nooooo," Symmes drawled, except it wasn't a very good drawl because the corners of his mouth were weighed down by fatty jowls. He reached for a little bowl of candies set behind him on an ornamental stand. "No more fighting." He shook his head slowly. "There are different orders now."

"Mr. Symmes, be more clear," Ari interrupted. "Are you saying there are orders to stand off and let this resistance run free-"

"No, no, no, noooo, noooooo," Symmes trailed as he stuffed some candies in his mouth and offered the bowl to the other three with him, but oh no they couldn't, anyways his spittle-dipped fingers had rooted through the bowl. "The resistance is all in one building, so the plan is to get inside and blow it up. But they won't talk to us, so we have to grab... You, Wells... their crummy 'League'-'officials'-and get them to talk. Mmmmnuh."

"So I'm not needed? At all?" Ari said.

"You're backup, in case it fails, which it might, considering our past experience." At the cost of 'past experience' being well-enunciated, more spit flew across the table. Shelley was quite fascinated by this whole thing, and the chandelier above the table. "We will probably still have to use you and the army."

"What exactly are the directives?" Wells said.

"Well, I'll let the Sercetary explain," he said, and played a live video comm on the big TV on one side of the room.

Everyone watched the transmitted directives on how to go about getting the League to work for them. There were plenty of 'reasons'-threats, Shelley knew-for the League not to refuse. Namely, the fact that the Mainland could very well ship them off to a remote island and leave them there to die.

The same pretense of which would hopefully convince the resistance that the League really wanted to have an honest sit down chat.

* * *

**AN: we are nearing the end. **

**spoiler for those who've gone this far: the mainland is the administrative, all-powerful motherland, but due to a revolution yet to happen, it will be turned once more into a new land - Unova.**


	73. Littleroot

No one else had gotten past Steven; trainers were still arriving, one by one, from across Hoenn. Any breaks he had he dashed back to his room and watched the news, seeing all the fighting in Mauville. He had always known pokemon were a potential military force but he'd hoped no one would ever realize that. Well, it had happened, and he would've thought it was spectacular if not in this situation. He knew for the maximum number of people to survive, the Hoennites should just get on the helicarriers and leave without much fuss. It would be his turn soon, and his Elite three.

What was the point? The point of going on? Yet there was an inarticulable part of him that said he would be going on no matter what parts of him were able to.

A surprisingly skilled challenger, an old gym leader applicant, tried his position but Steven defeated him as well. The screen above the door to the Hall of Fame said there was no challenger waiting, so Steven snuck back to his grand room. Wallace was dozing, slouched on the red loveseat.

Before he could punch the right icon on his Nav to turn the TV on, it rang. The number said Private. Well, that only meant one thing: the Mainland.

"Steven Stone speaking," he answered it.

"Hello Steven Stone, this is the Second Executive of Region Relations," the familiar voice said stiffly. "Wells, Andrew Wells."

They've phoned to say they're going to shut me down by force now. "Good day, Mr Wells," Steven said, pacing slowly this way and that. "What can I do for you?"

"I've heard you're at your League," Wells said.

"I am," he returned.

"Good, because we need you to fly to Verdanturf within the next two hours."

"Why?" Steven asked inquisitively. Why did they 'need' him? Was it a trap?

"Surely you've been watching the news," Wells said. "The band of opposition members and their creatures have invaded the Commonhouse and likely plan to split Hoenn away from our help."

"I read a short article. Can't you handle them?" Steven said in a dismissive tone.

"We must conserve as much funds as possible for emergency relief efforts," Wells said back. "We need an ally to go in."

"Ally? The Mainland has made it quite clear that the Pokemon League is not its ally."

"Of course. The Mainland would like to completely obliterate Hoenn in total oppression of pokemon and such."

Steven started. Before he could figure it out, Wells went on.

"At least that's what the opposition believes, and it's why you've arranged to meet with them. To join them."

"I have?" Steven said after a brief pause.

"It's the only logical action, to escape the anticipated dire fate the Mainland has prepared."

I see how it is, Steven thought, picturing the slick I'm-above-you smile on Wells' face as he lied and told the veiled truth in the same words.

The sign above the exit flashed and displayed 'CHALLENGE COMMENCING'. Steven thought quickly. The League was still designated to be open for three hours. There was no way to get word out to trainers still on their way.

"One moment," Steven said, and closed the phone and put it on the table. He went over to look down on Wallace, who stirred and opened his eyes. "Wallace, a favour," he said.

"Yes...?" Wallace said, pushing himself up.

"The Mainland demands a negotiator. I have to leave. You've just defeated me, you must-"

Wallace blanched. "No, Steven-"

"Alright, then this: you'll have to be the negotiator." Steven would rather stay and battle on till the end at any rate. "You have defeated me, after all." Steven dashed to one of the big chairs at the metal table and grabbed the scallop-edged white cloak. Wallace edged out from in front of the red sofa. "They need someone to go and talk to Magma and their resistance in Mauville, one of us."

Wallace nodded. "As long as they'll take me. You have to stay at your post, Steven."

"Thank you." The Champion nodded in appreciation as he put a hand on Wallace's shoulder to still him as he went around his back and cast the cloak over his shoulders, adjusting it and clasping it. Walking back around to the front, Steven nodded to himself. Wallace was perfectly suited to the regal, almost-floor-length cape; his navy blue shirt and light grey slacks went well with it. And his hair, brilliant cerulean.

He looked suddenly like he was the Champion and Steven was not.

Steven turned away abruptly and caught up his Nav again. "Wells? I'm sorry, but you do need the Champion, yes?... I have just been defeated. Don't worry, they'll listen to whoever's got the cape; he's a former gym leader, he looks more the part."

Wells was sold. "Send him here right away. Verdanturf. I'll let you remain there, but send your other people along."

"The Elite? I can't-there's a challenge-"

"How long does that take?"

"Maybe a half hour, but some of them might be done."

"Send them as they finish their duties and don't come until summoned."

"Understood," Steven said.

"Right away," Wells said, and ended the call.

Steven put his Nav in his pocket. "You have to take off right away," he told Wallace, who nodded.

"Of course. I'll do my best," he said, tiredly, through a tense expression. "Negotiating."

Steven sighed. "Just-don't trust Maxie. Don't agree to anything the leader says, I don't know what he'll throw at you - and have your pokemon ready."

"You know him?" Wallace frowned.

"Unfortunately," Steven said. He glanced down. "When I was younger. He was a role model- then."

"I'll take that advice," Wallace said. "And I'll be back."

"I will try and make it there, summons or not. Hopefully they won't ship you off after you're done."

Wallace's face took on some distant expression. A twitch of horror, a resolution. "No, they won't." He focused back on Steven. "I'll pick up the Elite that are ready. Goodbye," he said, and left.

Steven was held taut after his friend exited the room. There was a good chance that he would be sent right off to the Mainland after he was done running their errands. That swirl of white cape could be the last Steven ever saw of him.

It could be a trap, the Mainland's summons. He would be more comfortable if someone else went in with Wallace but not under Mainland orders. But he couldn't ask the busy, or antagonistic, gym leaders; he tried Wattson anyways but the man didn't answer his Nav. It probably wasn't a trap, probably.

He allowed himself a moment to look down, teetering on the edge as he was, and feel the black drop of despair below him. And then he looked back up, straightened the cravat he'd retrieved from his quarters, and headed back to his battle room.

...

The Pokemon center in Verdanturf was packed, and everyone in the town stood around outside although they had not been called yet. Mainland soldiers patrolled around them. Every minute or so a voice would call out for the names of the next family to depart.

The Birches, Mrs Mayer and Mr Suru all stood inside the packed Pokemon center. They had watched the passport process many times now; give up your pokemon, your trainer card; have your bags weighed and scanned; receive a new paper; and be shuffled off to the helicarrier.

Mr Suru was getting worried, confiding anxiously in Professor Birch from time to time that he hoped they'd be called next, or he was sure they would. Wally was getting worse, even on heavy antibiotics; he had an infection now because of the ash and pollutive debris filling the air. Wanda was at home making sure he kept breathing until he was called.

"We're out of food anyway, if we don't get taken soon, more than just Wally won't be set back to rights," Mr Suru said, tapping his foot, as they reached the hour and a half mark. May texted Brendan but he wasn't answering. What was he doing? He should've been there by now.

She and her dad were there to support Mr Suru only. May hadn't asked her dad if he would go when they said go. Already some people had stormed out when it came to handing over their pokemon, cussing and angry, in contrast to the relieved expressions of some as they were taken on board the life saving vessel.

She stood there, lost in her thoughts of what would happen when she and her dad were called - when suddenly Prof Birch put an arm on her shoulder.

"They just called us, sweetie," he said, and pushed his way through the crowd, also taking Mrs Mayer's hand.

The registrars behind the desk verified the father and daughter's names, giving the woman a look. People had tried to get on board with other clans but hadn't been allowed to. The rule wasn't going to bend.

"I would like to register Miranda Mayer and Brendan Mayer as part of our, er, transport unit," the Professor said.

"Can't be done," the main registrar said, sipping tea, which smelled weird to May.

"But you see, their father was a gym leader, killed in this ordeal-"

The registrar raised her eyebrows and gave her head a little shake. "I'll need your pokeballs."

"We would like to register as four people," Prof Birch continued, "because we have friends, four of them, and they need to get on before we do."

"We don't have any extra spots, sirrrrr," whirred the registrar.

"I'm not asking for an extra spot, just a swap. Their son is very sick you see-"

"Who are these people?"

"The Surus-Verdanturf citizens..."

"I'm sorry, please hand over your pokeballs."

"Later we will," Prof Birch said, clearing his throat, "as long as you take the Surus first."

"Do I need to have you escorted away?" the registrar said.

"No, we'll go, just as soon as you help the Surus and their little boy on the helicarrier! He's got cystic fibrosis, and his lungs are awfully infected what with the volcano eruption-"

"Please, it's my son!" Mr Suru panted, shoving his way through the crowd to the desk and gripping the edge. "Please! He might die!"

"Sirrrrrr/-"

"Wally? You've got to let Wally on!" a Verdanturf citizen piped up from in the crowd.

"What? They're not putting Wally on?"

"That's sick! He needs help!"

"It's terrible, the hacking that kid does!"

"Alright alright," the registrar announced, standing, "we will take these four people on board instead of you." She looked at the Professor. "You will be put on the next flight," she said.

"Fine by me," Prof Birch said. "You stay here, I'll get Wally and Wanda and her boyfriend over here." He hurried out and May followed him as they hustled back to the Suru's house and relayed the news. Wanda and her boyfriend immediately began unhooking Wally from his breather and Prof Birch grabbed suitcases. May picked up Wally's, which was covered in photos of ralts and him (saying a lot because photography wasn't a big thing in Hoenn), a proud Stone badge clipped to the handle.

"Are you ok with maybe not leaving until later?" her father asked her, concerned.

"Oh, yes," she said in a breath, "I don't want to leave. Doesn't... Mrs Mayer does, right?"

"I think the move will be good for her," Prof Birch said. Plaintive 'why's and coughing from Wally came from down the hallway.

"I don't know where Brendan is, so she can't go yet," May said.

"Keep trying to get a hold of him." Professor Birch lowered his voice. "With that Maxie leading the rebellion, who knows what danger he could be in staying here for longer than necessary. While he might want to-Miranda can't handle it."

May nodded. That stupid kid, what was taking so long? She texted him again, and then they were off, Wanda supporting Wally whose whole body shook with the heaving of his lungs, and her boyfriend carrying his medical trappings.

...

Brendan had stopped in Littleroot. The wooden houses were everywhere, in splintered roofs and tumbled log walls, only haphazard stacks now of lumberjack leftovers. He found his house. Only one wall was sort of standing. He stood on someone else's upside down bed because there was no empty ground space. His nose was thick with soot. Swell stood awkwardly on a pile of walls with windows and a kitchen sink and baby clothes, talons scratching on wood.

He was losing Norman already. He needed his dad's voice to bring back the memories, the right memories. Fragments of childhood events that had or hadn't happened filled his mind, as meaningless as the wreckage now filling his hometown.

The photo albums were under the mess of the collapsed two story. The surviving wall was the one of the fireplace. But he would have to dig, and he wasn't strong enough, and Swampert was dead.

Brendan stood on the edge of his lawn, on his fallen door, his house spilled and cracked around him, and put a hand on a metal reinforcer sticking out like a broken bone. Fire wouldn't help. Electricity wouldn't help. He had to get to Verdanturf. What if he arrived and everyone had left? His Nav buzzed in his pocket but somehow he couldn't answer it.

_If I leave with anything, I have to leave with my mind_. Brendan glanced back at Swell, who was cocking its head at him. _Leave? No, I just need my mind. Keep the parts of my broken brain in there. _

His hand was on the metal support, spars of wood still clinging to it, and in the moment he felt what kind of empty being he would become if there was no before, a current of energy went through him and dislodged the metal pole and he threw it in the air and flung it, and it arced away from him.

It landed with a crash on someone else's wreckage.

Brendan climbed over the uneven remnants of his house and touched another big piece of second story floor. The energy charged through his arm and again he swung it up and flung it away without so much the strain of lifting 10 pounds.

Swell looked on as Brendan kept flinging his way down, until he had cleared a space somewhere in the living room, and he manually hauled chairs and clothes and pipes aside until he got to the cabinet with photo albums. He crawled under a fallen shelf of wall and dug out the two he knew best.

Standing again in the open, Swell hopped over to join Brendan as he lifted the red fabric covers open. The first page was Norman and Miranda when they'd first met in Johto, dining at the brass tower.

No. Not now, he had it and that was good. He clambered back on Swell after checking his missed messages; all from May. He quickly sent her a notice that he was coming and flew away, feeling reckless as he looked back until he couldn't distinguish his house anymore.

...

"No! Nooooooo! My pokemon! We can't leave kirlia!" Wally was screaming, somehow through the viscous fluid wallowing in his lungs, as the Surus were given their papers and were attempting to head to the helicarrier. He collapsed into a coughing fit and Wanda and Mr Suru hastily dragged him forward a couple of steps, as the crowd made a wide berth for him, but then he dashed back and held onto the handles of the pokemon healing bed. "We can't leave kirlia! Daddy we can't leave her!" he screamed, over and over, losing his breath.

"She's gone already," Mr Suru said in a desperate cajole. "Wouldn't you like your plush? Your little raltsy plush?"

"_Nooooo_! Kirlia! We can't leave her!" Wally kept howling, between body-wracking hacks, tears streaming down his cheeks. May looked on in shock as two guards marched in and took Wally by the arms. His family scurried ahead of him, trying to quiet him, but only when the guards hauled him, legs kicking, out the doors, did they get respite. The banshee noises were masked by the closing of the doors to muffled wailing.

Even the registrar had to compose herself for a moment before examining her list for the next name.

Shortly after things got under way again, Mr Suru hurried back in, emotional. He gave Professor Birch a long hug and thanked him profusely for everything, and did the same to May. He offered condolences again to Mrs Mayer and said his goodbyes. The families would likely never see each other again, as the Surus were called to the Mainland and there were a lot more going to Sinnoh than the Mainland.

May's Nav rang and she went outside to take the call as soon as Steven's voice came through.

"May-I'm so glad to get a hold of you." Steven's words were rushed.

"What is it?" May said.

"I have to ask you something. The Mainland has recently been fought out of the Commonhouse; you probably know that. They're planning to get back in not by using arms, but by negotiating, using Wallace, the Elite, and me."

"Really? I wouldn't trust what they say-"

"Exactly. All the gym leaders are either enemies now or occupied; I need you to be an emergency contact in case anything goes wrong, if you're in the area."

"I am, we're in Verdanturf waiting to be ported off."

"Oh...so you're going right away?"

"Not if I can help it. Hey, I can get Brendan to help me too. So we'll just stand by until we get a call from someone?"

"Yes. I don't know the specifics yet. May, you know I'm only asking this of you because you're an extremely capable girl. You survived the legendary battle, you defeated me - it's at the point where, if we're going to need someone to swoop in and get us out of there, or if we have a headshot at Dr - at Maxie, and need one more under the Mainland's radar, it's going to be you."

"Thank you," May said, a bit flustered, "Maxie? You mean you'll take him out if you get the chance?"

"I would. If the opportunity presents itself, I'll have to. He's preventing Hoenn from recuperating. And I might need your help to do so. Assure your family I'll only request your help if it's safe for you," Steven said.

"Of course, thanks," May said. "All this is probably classified, right?"

"Yes. I'm finishing up at the League. We'll be talking to the Mainland in a couple hours. You've seen Magma up close, May. Because they're leading the rebellion, I trust you to make the final decision if I do contact you."

"Alright. Brendan should be here soon as well."

"Thank you, May."

"No problem," she said.

"Goodbye, in case this doesn't turn out right."

"But that's what I'm here for."

A laugh came. "I won't enlist your help lightly, May. Don't worry about me. I'm more concerned about Phoebe, Sidney... Wallace."

"I'm sure they're just as concerned about you."

"Well, thank you. Thank you, and if I get a chance, I'll call you with more details."

"Alright. Bye."

The Champion hung up. May pocketed her Nav and ran back to the Pokemon center; the two adults were waiting just outside now. May beckoned her dad aside and told him the gist of the plan from Steven.

"But you might not be able to, the helicarrier could have room for us still," the Professor said.

"That's alright! There'll be more helicarriers!"

"I don't know, May," he said in a lowered voice, "I have an obligation to Mrs Mayer."

"It's not like you have to do it, I'll go with Brendan-"

"Brendan's not going, I know that much," the professor said, glancing at Mrs Mayer.

"Just me, then."

"We can't separate, May. Look, I'll think about it."

"But I already said yes!"

"That's why you shouldn't, before asking me," the professor said, putting an arm around her shoulders. May sighed. It felt more like a cage than an embrace.

"I don't want to go to Sinnoh or the Mainland," May said sourly. "I want to stay here."

"So do I," her father agreed. "But it's not the best option. The Champion should've told you that."

"Well, he knows. But someone has to make it safe for the people to leave!" May pleaded. She adjusted her bag on her shoulders.

"I will consider it," Prof Birch said with a nod. The two rejoined Mrs Mayer. Scarcely a minute passed before May spotted a dark point overhead and to the southeast, and it quickly grew bigger and bigger until she saw it was Swell, and Brendan. She jumped and waved at him and he pulled Swell up to circle over Verdanturf a couple of times before he swooped down to land.

"Where were you?!" May and Mrs Mayer both exclaimed as they ran towards Brendan. He recalled Swell and held up a hand, hefting two big books under his arm. He handed the volumes to Mrs Mayer. She looked at him in confusion and then flipped open the first page, quickly closed it.

"You went back?... Brendan, it's dangerous, did you dig through everything, all for-"

"I need them, Mom," he said, cutting her off, not so much a rebuttal as a plea. May looked from one to the other.

"Brendan, I need to talk to you," May said.

"Not now, we could be called," Mrs Mayer said anxiously, gripping the albums, holding their covers tightly closed.

"Lakota Fenrise, Tom Fenrise," came over the outdoor loudspeakers.

"We'll hear it," Brendan said. He stood a little ways away by a house. May laid down everything Steven had said in front of Brendan, and like that, he was nodding along.

"Of course they'll need someone to help, either the Mainland'll play foul or Maxie and everyone will: the TR they're calling themselves."

"What? TR? Trainers..."

"Trainers' Resistance. It's on the news. They did a drafting call on Hoenn TV. Whatever, this is our chance to get at Maxie."

"Though Steven did say... about killing him," May said hesitantly. She looked into Brendan's eyes; he was somewhere else, probably fast-forwarding to what he thought would happen. His focus snapped back to her.

"Killing him? Sure. He's not a kid or anything. He's not helpless."

May dropped it. "Yep. So, you're in?"

"You needed to ask? If I'm going, then I'm going to damn well make sure Maxie doesn't. And any of his-his-whatever he did with Swampert."

May looked down. She wasn't at all sure who Brendan was making himself into. And he probably didn't, either. "So we dig in our heels?"

"Yes."

"Even if your mom and my dad go?"

Brendan snorted. "If the Mainland really wants us gone, they'll drag us off. Your dad will keep my mom safe."

"Yes, he will," May nodded.

"We should head to Mauville, scout it out-"

"I get you made a detour to pick up those books," May cut him off, voice rising, "but don't." She put a hand flat on his chest as if staying him. "Don't. Run off. We'll talk to our parents once more. It can't hurt." May wasn't going to move until Brendan agreed, so he did after a few seconds. May pushed her hand away off his chest. His orange-marked windbreaker had been smooth and rustled under her fingertips. She turned and strode efficiently back toward the Pokemon center.

She barely had time to tap her dad on the shoulder and for him and Mrs Mayer to swing around before their names blared on the speakers. Mrs Mayer made a break for the desk, using all her nurse's speed of getting a tissue for a sneezing boy, dragging Prof Birch along.

"Wait!" Brendan yelled, but the adults were already listening to the registrar explain there had been a mistake, the Surus had been slated as well for this helicarrier shipment and there was still room for the Mayers and Birches.

Mrs Mayer's whole posture sagged in relief. She had already said goodbye to her friends and acquaintances at the hospital. "Come on, Brendan," she said to her son, and the professor wiggled his eyebrows at May, an almost-smile of anticipation on his face.

May and Brendan glanced at each other, and she knew they were both of one mind.

"We can't," May said.

"We'll be there soon," Brendan said, and they turned to go, but just as they were pushing through the people clear to the exit, the patrolling guards gathered to block their way.

"You must receive your passports now," one of them intoned.

"We'll get them, we just won't go now," May said.

"First you must hand over your pokemon and .. pokemon owner license."

"Trainer's card," Brendan corrected. "And no."

"It is mandatory," the foremost guard said.

"You can have my pokemon if you can take it. Go, Swell!" Brendan released his bird, which immediately started cawing and flapping about and causing a great ruckus. The guards were momentarily distracted and May was going to push past, but Brendan held her back and instead lunged forward with his other arm in front, releasing a blast of flames that knocked the guards back in a BOOM of heat. May's eyes flinched up and then she ran after Brendan outside through the gap in the guards.

"Another!"

"Like the resistance leader!"

Swell blurred out of the Pokemon center and caught up with its trainer even as he and May were running away, east. The men in black armor soon came behind them in pursuit.

"You've got tropius," Brendan panted.

"Yes," May said. Legs pumping, she fumbled in her bag, counting to the pokeball in the sixth pocket by feel. Brendan glanced back. Swell was a flurry of wingbeats just overhead.

"Got it," May said, and released Tropius. Swell landed, Brendan mounted, but Tropius was more awkward and May had to haul herself up on its leathery back as it swung its helmeted head from side to side and made mumbling noises.

"Hurry," Brendan called as Swell lifted off, the guards thumping in, closing the gap, guns in hand. Tropius began to flap its four leafy wings but it wasn't going to be fast enough. One guard raised his weapon and shot the sauropod in the hind leg. Tropius roared and stomped around to face the enemy.

"No-" May said shrilly from atop the large pokemon, as Brendan dove down in front of her and swept a wall of flames across the path of the guards. Swell pecked at Tropius' rubbery green visor and it lifted off with great heaving wingbeats, attempting to catch up to the bird and give it a piece of its mind.

The guards burst through the dwindling flames and aimed their weapons up. Brendan twisted on top of Swell even as they ascended and didn't think, just hurled a good amount of energy out of himself as gunshrieks sounded. Furls of flame met bullets and popping sounded. Brendan turned back to front and Swell encouraged the mad Tropius on as May hung on to the the less-than-smooth ride.

Another spray of bullets followed and again found Tropius' haunches, but it didn't seemed to be deterred. That was the last round of fire and the two were off to Mauville, without their parents.

May would've had second thoughts, but she was too busy trying to get her swerving and dipping pokemon under control.

* * *

**A/N: if you guys think that's the end of originshipping you're wrong. **


	74. So I Have to Carry a Bomb on my Head

**AN: Only six more chapters!**

* * *

Only Phoebe and Sidney were ready to go; Drake was still battling a challenger. They had set off with Wallace, the former gym leader surfing on Milotic, Phoebe and Sidney along on wailmer.

Once the long surf to the shore of Hoenn was over, including a detour south of Sootopolis, they mounted the borrowed swellow that Brendan had returned to the League. Wallace and Sidney took off but Phoebe just stood there, at the mouth of the eastern inlet, staring at the destruction around her. Toppled trees, the coastline bashed and eaten away at, ground churned, even human debris here and there from the distant cities.

She eventually mounted and headed off after Wallace and Sidney. She hadn't called her grandma by Fortree because the woman didn't have a Nav. But she would have to go and check on her, the independent old stickler.

...

The Mainlanders driven out of Mauville waited at the helicarrier being loaded; on the eastern side of the huge machine, helicopters crouched, spread out and resting. The unwounded soldiers were being formed into ranks of equal numbers.

The dignitaries lounged in their specific quarters or in the dining area, drinking iced beverages. It was a hot day.

General Ari was finishing up taking stock of the arsenal; there were still plenty of guns left to spare but not any of the plastic-based rifles. She had loaded her bow with the lethal darts. But she knew that it would be much easier to win this if the Mainland stooped to using pokemon as well. And she knew the Mainland didn't stoop further than to tie its shoes, so it was pointless to ask.

Hopefully this fool-brained scheme of the politicians who knew nothing about wars with guns and much less with pokemon would actually work. How renowned were League trainers and the Champion in Hoenn? In Johto, Ari remembered, they were celebrities: had been, until Rocket came around and they were powerless to stop them. Perhaps the same thing had already happened here. The General knew she would take the main blame for any complications, even though the orders came from the likes of Symmes.

But that's why they put her on the job, wasn't it? They wouldn't care if she gave them reason to let her go, put her back in prison.

But she wasn't going back to prison; regardless of the politicians' tomfoolery, she would go in with her army and make sure nothing gave her a bad name.

...

Brendan and May touched down south of Mauville, by the bike path entrance building. There was no one manning it and it was locked. The inlet dock was nearby and waves lapped at the green shore and the white fence that had half-fallen into the water. The bike path stood supported on interlocked metal supports overhead.

"So what do we do," May said. "Wait until..."

"Yeah, we should try to get in the city and look around."

"Or our pokemon. Safer that way. Gallade knows how to video with my Nav."

"A gallade filming the TR headquarters is still conspicuous," Brendan said. May was surprised he knew such a long word. All of a sudden the tr-tr-tr-tr of bikes on the overhead bridge sounded, and a minute later yelling as the door to the building was jiggled.

May ran to pull on the door from the outside and it gave way with a crash, people pouring out, 50 or so. They all rushed on up ahead to Mauville but May managed to catch one by the sleeve.

"Excuse me but what are you doing?" she asked the man.

"Going to Mauville! Join the Trainer's Resistance! Nothing left in Oldale for us! I might even find some real pokemon footprints!" He took off after the others.

"Hey, let's go with them," Brendan said, breaking into a jog and then stopping himself to explain to May. "We won't be as noticeable!"

"Not all the way!"

"No, just to get close and see what's up," Brendan said. May started jogging after him. He kept looking at her.

"What?" she said.

"They might still recognize you," Brendan said. "Put your hair down. And maybe you can wear my jacket."

As they ran after the group from Oldale and exchanged costume, the precaution felt kind of excessive.

"My hair will, get in, my face," May said, having succeeded getting her bandana off as her feet pounded the ground.

"So?" Brendan said, a little ahead of her. May tugged her pigtails out and stuffed them in her short-sleeved sweater pocket. Her long brown hair came free and started flouncing about her as she ran.

Brendan tossed her his jacket and she just held it with an arm, sweating now as they increased their pace to catch up.

...

Wallace, Sidney and Phoebe arrived at the helicarrier in Verdanturf, pokemon along beside them: sealeo, dusknoir, absol. They saw the tents outside the hospital, the ruined skyscrapers of Mauville behind them.

A pod of black-garbed soldiers waited for them outside one of the sets of stairs coming down from the helicarrier, its side rising like a great bulging wall in front of them.

A woman stepped forward to meet them as they came past the last helicopters, her armour decorated with an orange stripe.

"I'm General Ari," she said, extending a hand to Wallace. He shook it. Phoebe raised an eyebrow. Hand-shaking wasn't something you did in the regions; a little bow would suffice, and there weren't many people, once you were an adult, you had to bow to. "Follow me." The General turned and climbed the stairs. The three recalled their pokemon. Wallace's cape billowed behind him as the two Elite followed him into the hollows of the amazing vessel. The hallways were utilitarian for a while and then became carpeted and then there were a set of doors, and the General let them in, taking up the rear as the three League members filed in. Phoebe gaped at the board room: the chandelier, the great cockpit-like grid of windows that took up the opposing wall; the thick dark red carpet. Everything familiar in the room, like the TV on one wall, was just a little strange compared to similar region products. Their TV was more rectangular than standard issue region TVs.

A fat man in a suit sat at the table, along with other people in formal dress. The General closed the door behind the three and they sat at the other end of the table. Phoebe noted all the assembled Mainland people were over 40, and they all had little smiles upon seeing the League officials.

"You are Wallace?" the man at the head of the table said.

"Yes," Wallace said. He sat rod-straight in his chair, his long bright light blue hair untied. A man to the spokesman's left nodded to him.

"I am Symmes, and I'll be giving you orders," the man said, his plentiful fat choking his utterances. "The people here respect you three?"

"I would hope so," Wallace said in a demure tone. Sidney and Phoebe nodded. A smirk passed through Symmes' eyebrows as it was too much exercise to heft his mouth and therefore double chin up.

"Then you're the men... And lady," Symmes said, unfolding some kind of gracious gesture towards Phoebe (who wore traveling clothes), "for the job. You have arranged a meeting with those resistance leaders in your capital."

"It's not their capital, sir. They don't have capitals in regions," the General spoke from the door. The fat man gave her a look and then went back to speaking.

"You will go and see what their terms are, having the pretense of joining them. Their terms of surrender aren't remotely desirable to us, so, you will have to take in this." Symmes held up a flattish, plum-sized object with wires sticking out of it.

"What is it?" Phoebe asked, leaning forward in her chair.

"A bomb," Symmes said flatly. "Which one of you is the least suspicious?"

Wallace looked at both sitting at his sides. Sidney and Phoebe each raised half a hand.

"Good, we'll have two in case one fails," Symmes said, slapping the table and reaching into his candy bowl. "After you get inside, while you are meeting or something, stick it somewhere. Once you stick it down, it will take 10:00 to detonate." Symmes spoke rather slowly as if trying to make someone very thick understand.

"What are we aiming to explode?" Wallace questioned.

"Pfff," said Symmes, "anything. It has a sufficient radius. If you're inside, it will work."

"Are you aiming for Maxie?"

"I don't know who the hell Maxie is, I want these little resistors blown the wits out of them," Symmes said, heaving himself and making to go somewhere but apparently deciding against it. He gave the bomb to an older woman at his elbow with a few words. She trotted over to Phoebe and affixed it in the center of the big pink flower in her hair.

"So I have to carry around a bomb on my head?!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Unfortunately not a camera, you'll have to decide when it's safe to detonate. We'll have two, so if this one is found, there will be a diversion to use the other."

"The underside of a table is a good bet," said another dignitary.

"When is this meeting?" Wallace asked.

"In a couple of hours. 6:30 pm," Symmes said. He made a dismissing motion. "The General will make sure you're ready and get you the other bomb."

Everyone stayed expectantly seated so Wallace rose and the two Elite after him.

"Oh, aren't more coming?" Symmes said as they were about to go.

"Perhaps, though I'm not sure in only two hours," Wallace said.

"As long as it's done." Symmes put another candy in his mouth as General Ari opened the doors and went out after them.

Once in the hallway, outside closed doors, she said,

"We'll try and cover your backs. Just get out as soon as you can after planting the bomb."

"No guarantees?" Wallace said, arms crossed.

"No guarantees," the General returned rather harshly. She directed them to a simple office room close to the exit and instructed them to depart at 6:00 in order to reach Mauville in time. "Make the visit as long as you can before planting the bomb, if you want to give us time to get in," the General instructed, adding numbers on their Navs for them.

"Do we, like, get anything for doing this?" Sidney asked, looking in the simple mirror on the wall and spiking his mohawk back.

"Your lives, and a safe ticket out of here," the General said. "If any other of your allies arrives, they will be sent here." She gave them further instructions on the bombs, and left.

"This is quite the ... plan," Wallace noted, going to the window and looking out towards Mauville's jagged skyline.

"If we can stop the resistance, it'll save a lot of lives," Phoebe proclaimed. "I don't know why anyone would start fighting against this," she said, waving her arms at everything.

"They will take our pokemon once we leave," Wallace said. Sidney tried unsuccessfully to hook his Nav to the Mainland TV on the wall. He plopped down and started watching reports. Phoebe scooched over to sit beside him.

"...no concrete numbers, but the battlefields show an estimated 200 dead, both Mainland soldier and trainer," the Hoenn TV anchor was saying. "With the Trainer's Resistance the only option for those who want to fight for their land, we can only wonder how long they can stay there without supplies. They'll have to make a move soon..." Sidney pressed the other channel button, but GT Hoenn was unavailable. Maybe they'd gone already.

Silence slunk through the room as the Elite entertained themselves with their Navs.

"Gosh, I really need to go see my grandma when we're done this. It says Fortree's been evacuated this morning," Phoebe murmured.

"I'll go with you," Sidney said, putting an arm around her.

Wallace's gaze was tipped up at the ceiling. Already he'd sent Steven the information on what was going to happen. The Champion said he would come as soon as he could, but suddenly there was an influx of challengers at the League.

_If I must come, I will, _Steven texted.

_No, take your time, _Wallace told him.

He released his sealeo beside him and soon began a game of tossing a book across the table for the sea lion pokemon to catch, waiting for the minutes to tick down to 6:00.

...

Brendan and May straggled at the back of the rabble as they scattered through the streets toward the main square with the Commonhouse. As the Oldale citizens rushed into the patrolling trainers they appeared affronted, but some of them knew some of the guards and struck up a chat as they were escorted towards the Commonhouse.

Brendan and May stopped short behind a barrier of infrastructure, tumbled storage units and sporting goods. They went unnoticed and watched as the new recruits went to enter the government building.

"Should we try and get in?" May said quietly as the last of the people streamed past.

"Yeah, let's," Brendan said, and jogged into the flow of people. May followed, hoping neither of them would be seen by Magma members.

...

The General was called again to Symmes in the middle of debriefing her troops. The man was the only one seated at the table, with other dignitaries standing around and speculating in lowered voices.

"Yes, Synmmes?" the General said a bit tightly.

"We've been served an alert by the troops overseeing the hamlet to the west," Symmes said, sending spittle flying forth. He leaned his great bulk forward as if trying to emphasize a point. "Like the man the science heads are trying to figure out, shooting fire from his hands, a youth did the same thing and got away."

"From Verdanturf?"

"Yes, whatever it's called." Symmes had a half-moaning, half-uptalking way of speaking. "There may be others among the little rebellion." He cued a photo of a boy wearing a blue toque, black and orange jacket and baggy exercise shorts, with a yellow backpack. "Keep an eye out. The science heads don't know what's the matter with these people." The image progressed to a slow-frame video of a burst of flames seemingly coming from the boy as he rushed out the door over which the camera was perched. It replayed. General Ari put her hand to her chin, her eyes following the jerky shots.

"We could send out a unit right away," she stated.

"No, best to wait until the bomb's gone over," Symmes said. "The science heads are being ferried over here. We'll wait."

General Ari's eyebrows arched. "But this is just a little rebellion, isn't it?"

"The science heads have changed their vote," Symmes said through a long huffing sigh, and turned away in his seat, signalling conversation's end.

...

Shelley was waiting when the General emerged from the board room, and she happened to glimpse the TV along the wall which was replaying Brendan's dramatic exit. Her lips parted and hung open as she made a gesture at it.

"What?" the General said curtly, looking behind her, looking at Shelley, looking back around at the TV. "Do you know that boy?"

"Y-yes-it's Brendan, that kid Maxie-Maxie knows about him," Shelley said, moving to continue looking at the TV when the General blocked her view.

"Knows about him? Is this Brendan working for the resistance?"

"No!...he's out for Maxie, Maxie k-" Shelley caught herself. She didn't want to tell the Mainland too much. "There was a fight, and it was Maxie's fault that Brendan's father died." Besides everything else.

The General's expression held shock for a moment. "It's likely that this Brendan would be heading for Mauville."

"Probably." Shelley was hoping that the General would decide to go in and give Shelley a shot at Maxie. There was also something nagging at the back of her mind, something about the General's face that was vaguely familiar when her helmet was off like this.

"We do need to find out..." muttered the General. "I'll have to give instructions to the League members going in." The General pulled a slim device out of a sheath in her thigh armour, pointed it at the TV with Brendan's image, swiped the screen. "Follow me," she told her bodyguard. Shelley followed; she wore almost a complete suit of armour now. She felt prepared; she had a pistol with normal bullets, too. Obviously General Ari didn't think she was disposed toward killing pokemon, hadn't given her a rifle with the plastic bullets. She was fine either way; either weapon was enough to seriously harm a human.

Her commander gave the three League officials a picture and details of the kid, but made it clear that the mission was first priority. Shelley wracked her brains for how to ensure that the Mainland would go straight to the center of Maxie's hideout. She still had Maxie's number. She could tell him some of what was going to happen, enough to make sure he put a kink in the espionage plans. She could even barter with him... no, what was the point, the twisted man had nothing she wanted, not even his powers...

"Um, General, where are the washrooms?" Shelley asked. The General glanced over her shoulder and pointed.

"You can find your way outside? We'll be forming ranks and warming up."

"Yes ma'am." Shelley zipped off to make her phone call.

...

The new recruits were herded along inside the Commonhouse, which was teeming with soldiers. Soldiers eating. May and Brendan didn't know where they were getting the food but as they ducked into a narrow coat room May thought of stealing some.

"It's packed," she whispered to Brendan. "How are we supposed to find out if Wallace and others are in here and where they are?"

Brendan pulled her back from the doorway as a group of new recruits passed closeby.

"...learn to use transenergy attacks..." the guide's voice faded in and out. Maya's Nav buzzed and she flipped it open. It was a message from Steven, detailing the time of the ... Bombing?

"Brendan! They're planning to bomb the Commonhouse," she said.

"That's the Mainland's plan?! Just, kaboom?"

"I guess," May said, scrolling through the previous messages and then shutting the Nav. "He says he'd appreciate it if we're open to give Wallace and the others a quick exit."

"Does that mean staying in here?"

"Mmm...I don't want to be around when the bomb goes off..."

"Quick is right. So we'll get out now and go back in right after everything blows up?"

"Sure," May agreed.

"We should wait to get a better shot," Brendan murmured under his breath, as if trying to convince himself, as he dug in all the coat pockets. Mainland attire by all the trappings and fancy styles. He came up with a handgun and nodded to May. She frowned. He tossed it back disdainfully like he was above it.

They melded with the next large group of people going by and made it out of the Commonhouse, managing to scurry around the back and into the streets of the city by dodging the patrolling trainers.

...

"What?" came Maxie's voice.

"You didn't take my deal," Shelley said, sequestered in one of the narrow grey-walled stalls of the otherwise empty washroom.

A laugh came. "You're not a convincing auctioneer." His tone was cold, like she was his enemy. She was, but it followed quick on the heels of being ... friends. "I don't even know where this masterball is."

"Would you like to know what the Mainland's planning for you?"

"Would I?" There was a lot of static coming through, like wind rushing. "Would you like to tell me?"

Shelley crossed her free arm over her torso. "It could save your miserable life."

"Miserable? Do explain."

Shelley spit some particularly nasty names at him, and it felt good.

"That does shed some light on your view of me," Maxie admitted.

"You-you raped me, you-"

"Not quite-"

"DON'T YOU-"

"You were so easy, Shelley-"

"I am going to kill you, you bastard," she cut him of venomously.

"Maybe we would still be together," Maxie intoned panderingly, "if you were able to put up such a fight."

Shelley slapped the phone closed and whipped it at the floor. The cover cracked. Inexplicable rage torrented through her mind and stopped up behind her lips. Forget all of Maxie's crimes. Justice could go to hell. All she wanted was revenge.

Then it came to her. The General's face.

Interesting, she thought as she retrieved her Nav, attempting to compose herself. She tried to get her red-orange curls into some kind of order but gave up. It gave her a wild kind of attractive look, anyway, she knew. She hadn't told Maxie there was a bomb coming. Oh well. Maybe he already had it figured out.

...

Wallace, Phoebe and Sidney were on their way.

It was strange, a lone threesome, a man in a swirling white cape leading them, walking toward the battered city of Mauville.

Even stranger was the matter of how this trainer Brendan, known to Wallace and recognizable to Sidney, had the same firepowers as Maxie, and why the Mainland wanted him.

Maybe he was even on Maxie's side.

So who knew what waited for them.


	75. Respect and Whatnot

As the trio of League officials met the line of patrol, Wallace shook cold hands with a trainer who led him and the other two off with an escort, across the mucky and charred remains of the greenspace in front of the Commonhouse. There was a light breeze in the sooty air. Noises of battle drills echoed from behind the off-white government building.

Phoebe watched Wallace's cape furrowing and unfurrowing, jittery. She had a bomb in her hair. Would she accidentally set it off?_ Act normal_, she squealed to herself mentally.

Wallace had the other explosive, where else but tied in the back of his long cyan hair. He was the picture of calm, with a dash of helpless desperation in his smile as he was greeted tensely by a Magma member.

Phoebe scolded herself for being silly; of course this huge gathering of trainers wouldn't be suspicious at all of bombs coming from just the three of them. They don't know we're here for the Mainland, Phoebe told herself as they were led through the Commonhouse, trainers on every side and in every room and hallway - this was a force to be reckoned with, even to the Mainland. Phoebe felt a little proud and then confused and then reminded herself that these people were being completely selfish by "fighting for freedom" and forcing the help of the sick and injured all over Hoenn into war instead of rescue efforts.

They arrived before the doors to the official board room. One of their escorts knocked and waited for a muffled "who?" before saying,

"It's the League to come and talk."

"Come in," came from inside. Phoebe steeled herself, unable to shove the panicky worries that the bomb might go off accidentally, or that she wouldn't get a chance to plant it, or they would find both of the bombs, out of her mind.

Wallace swept in and Phoebe caught a sure glance from Sidney before the two Elite entered as well.

The decorated inside with the rows of curving seats on either side was impressive, but Wallace stopped short before the group of people waiting. Phoebe moved to his right and Sidney to his left.

Courtney was with the leaders, including another Magma, Juan, some man, and Winona.

Winona.

Who strode a few feet out towards Wallace with a furious kind of disbelief on her face.

Phoebe gulped. Maybe she should start casually looking for a place? No, the General had said to give them some time...

"Champion?!" Winona said shortly, and it filled the room. The wound from the electrifying legendary battle was obvious curving down from the base of her collarbones, some kind of medical tape over it.

"Yes," Wallace said. "And... You..."

"I can't believe it. I can't believe you-" Winona made flinging gestures at him- "-everything was for nothing?" She stepped forward. "Your blown hip?! Our parents-"

Even the word 'blown' made Phoebe cringe under the weight of decision making.

"No," Wallace said, louder than his normal volume, "That's why we've come."

Phoebe saw a questioning glance from some of the TR members directed at Winona. Fortree's gym leader gave her allies a hard glance and withdrew from Wallace with a shake of her head. "So you do want to fight."

"I...The League would like to know more about what the TR's goals are, and what their leader has in mind."

Phoebe didn't know what Maxie looked like, but the only person who could've been him was introduced as Erick.

"What do you think we're fighting for?" Winona said. "For pokemon and Hoenn."

Phoebe began moving around casually. Besides the seats along the walls, where they were standing in front of the big window there were several little end tables all lined up-but they stood behind the six TR leaders.

"But this," Wallace responded, making for the large window to indicate Mauville, "The destruction...Surely there is a better way you have planned?"

It moved them a bit closer to the endtables, but there were enough eyes in the room that Phoebe was always under scrutiny. Maybe she would have to use hers as the decoy.

"No," Juan said, "You've seen in Fortree how the citizens were taken once they laid down the weapons, those that chose to."

"I know," Wallace said, "And as much as it pains me to see pokemon taken from trainers, I-"

"You've just turned coward," Winona cut him off, half-facing away.

"Perhaps, but bloodthirsty soldier is no better-"

"Who's the one coming to negotiate here?"

Wallace stepped back. "I apologize. Please, explain to me."

Phoebe clenched her hands, fiddling with her hair and feeling very nervous. Had it been enough time? Maybe she had to pull something desperate, she thought as the man called Erick launched into detail about the TR. He spoke and Phoebe edged back towards the edge of one of the tiers of seats, playing with her hair, trying to act like she was bored. She managed to get the big siir flower unpinned and detach the bomb from the underside in her tingling fingers, kind of turned away from the rest. She looked around the room but didn't register anything as she enclosed the explosive in a clammy hand and reaffixed the flower in her curly bob.

"I would think that a gym leader would understand," Erick concluded. Phoebe hopped back close to her companions.

"I understand what you're fighting for. But-how can you ally yourselves with Magma? They're responsible for causing-"

"Aqua was," accused Courtney. "We only tried to stop them, as we've told-"

"-the catastrophes, and their leader never shows up! Where is he now, this Maxie?"

"Off running important errands," Erick answered.

"I see," Wallace said. He looked at Phoebe for a moment and she took it to mean do it now in the pressure of the moment. "I don't fully agree with the way..."

Phoebe flounced around behind Wallace and over to the other rows of seats, looking at the polished gahoman wood as if she expected something to be amiss while feverish gripping the underside of the particular desk with her hands. Palming the bomb flat, her panicky fingers found the little button, and with a press it stuck and she jumped away almost too conspicuously.

"You came here just to tell us why you think we're wrong. Didn't you?!" Winona was accusing Wallace.

"I am ... Perhaps letting my views get in the way of Steven's..."

"But you're the Champion now," his sister responded mockingly. "A Champion with no trainers to come and battle you, because we're fighting. The real. War. You should leave."

Wallace tilted his head. "I agree. Seeing how you haven't ... tidied your methods here..."

"We'd like to keep one of your friends," Courtney put in. Phoebe whirled around in shock as Wallace and Sidney were turning to go.

"Say what?!" Sidney exclaimed.

"We let you in here. You don't get out without paying," the admin said.

"We'll leave together, thank you," Wallace said with a bare smile.

"One of you has to stay," Courtney reiterated.

Winona's Nav rang and she held up a hand for everything else to stop. Everything did.

"What is it?" she said. "...Yes, they are ... No... But the ... I see." The call ended quickly. "So the League will not join us?" she demanded of Wallace.

"I'm afraid not," he said.

Winona turned around to face the TR leaders. "Take them," she said.

Before their enemies could decide to obey, the three League members were making a run for it. But there were guards outside the door and as they fought to get past the confusion Phoebe panted,

"It's in!"

And Wallace:

"The bomb?"

And Phoebe:

"Yes!"

Wallace went completely pale.

"I thought you agreed to leave because you knew-"

"No, I agreed to leave because their leader isn't here-it's pointless-" Wallace said quickly and then with a yelp Phoebe was pinned by a trainer and Courtney rushed over with a Mainland-made gun. The Magma admin pulled Phoebe up and held the gun calmly to the panicking girl's side. All the trainers backed away. Sidney, right behind Wallace, froze.

"What's your real intention?" Courtney said.

"For what?" Wallace said.

"For coming here to negotiate," Courtney said levelly, with a jab to Phoebe's side.

"I-she doesn't have anything to do with it, and neither do I-" Wallace said quickly, and Erick grabbed him with a shout. "Get the Gen-" Wallace managed at the Elite as Winona rushed out of the boardroom and silenced him with the fury in her body language.

Sidney made a scrambling break for it, throwing himself carelessly on Courtney and knocking her gun arm away from Phoebe. The admin's finger was tight on the trigger and the shot fired wild as all the trainers assembled yelled and ducked.

"Get them!" Courtney ordered, recovering from the kickback and jumping up to run after Phoebe and Sidney.

Wallace stayed motionless. His sister faced him. Her slim purple-dyed brows gave the slightest arch as the commotion died away down the hallway and Erick held Wallace tight, Remi and Juan at his side.

"It's all on you," Winona said. "You're the one this time. With the dioxin," she said.

"It's simple negotiating..." Wallace trailed. "We turned down the Mainland..."

"Don't lie," Winona said in a demeaning tone. "Back inside. Juan, Remi, make sure we have the other two secure." She nodded to the board room and Erick struggled his prisoner in. Juan and Remi closed the doors behind them as they left at a run.

Maybe if Winona had known her brother better, if she hadn't avoided him for the last-oh, ten or so years-she would know that he had just managed blind her to the plan already unfolding under one of the boardroom desks.

...

"Hurry!" Sidney panted, but Phoebe was all over the place and was not beating a hasty retreat.

"Where's the exit? They're going to shoot me!" she yelled hysterically. As Sidney tried to get her downstairs to the main floor a swamp of trainers came in pursuit, a pelipper and a dustox and other pokemon thronging along. Sidney whipped out his mightyena and didn't look back as the wolf pokemon held up their pursues. Across the large showcase domed room the two went, polished stone floor underfoot, intricate skylights diffusing throughout the hall and making the legislative carvings inlaid on the walls seem to light up with their authority.

One mightyena didn't last long; the trainer army swept the barking creature aside and caught up to Phoebe and Sidney as they made an accidental wrong turn that wouldn't lead them outside anyway.

There was a blow at the back of Sidney's head and a dustox buzzed in Phoebe's face, and then they were in the hands of the TR. Juan and Remi pushed to the front of the jostling crowd of civilians-turned-soldiers.

"Don't harm them!" Juan shouted as Remi yelled,

"Hold onta them!" The impetuous Magma stepped in front of Juan and got into Phoebe's face. "I knew you were funny, all nervous in our meeting. What's planned? What's the Mainland up to?"

"Eeeee," Phoebe squeaked in fright and indecision as Sidney shook his head frantically at her. "Well-you guys are starting a war so they're stopping you-"

"No! They're taking our pokemon!" angered trainers cried.

"And you've betrayed us! You are the help of them!" Juan encored, with a fist raised. The army supported his cry.

"So do tell," Remi sneered, his mightyena circling Phoebe and abruptly jumping up, claws at the ready, causing her to scream, "what's coming for us?"

The answer came from the direction the pursuit itself had come, marching at a quick pace: ranks of black-armoured soldiers. The trainer army spun. Sidney kicked at his captors and twisted out of their grip as Juan and Remi pushed to the other end of the TR. They had hardly time to yell, "attack!" before the helmeted, orange-striped Mainland commanded said, "fire," and the soldiers did. As pokemon were released by the trainers gunshrieks sounded, oppressive in the small space, and screams and caws and grindings came from the resistance as they fell back.

This time Phoebe ran in true panic, unable to think, only able to move her feet as Sidney relentlessly tugged her along.

...

General Ari had received an electronic notice signalling the one bomb had been activated, and had wasted no time moving in, commanding the troops onward even as the politicians' calls came flickering on her visor and automated warnings were activated in her earpiece. They would show no hesitation, she had determined. She was coming out of this with a clean and sparkling record. As the pokemon and trainers floundered back before them, in the ornate hall, only a few spitfire attacks reaching the troops, Ari considered telling them to slow fire. But as a wave of water came crashing from the rear of the resistance troupes, with wild attack commands, it blasted the notion out of her mind. Knocked back by the tidal wave, Ari scrambled up, dripping. "Keep on!" she said, into the mic that connected her wirelessly to her men. Holstering the short-range blocky pistol, she unclipped and unslung her AEbow, advanced energy bow. The four-cam bow was equipped with a loading system that coupled with a forearm arsenal. The General had spent many hours practicing using the machine and it took her only a few seconds to grab the reinforced octane strings, push the tab on her armguard with her fourth finger to feel the shifting jolt of the bullet needle docking, aim and release.

The more deadly needles somehow felt more humane than bullets, as she hit the buzzing dustox. Another wave of water hit them but the shimmering energy leading up to it alerted the Mainland soldiers, and they braced themselves, gaining ground on the TR.

...

Winona faced her brother, back to the window in the boardroom.

"Give it up, Wallace, whatever's caused this."

He tilted his head to one side.

"It was supposed to be a bomb. But your leader's not here."

"So?" Winona took a step toward him and Erick backed away, clearing his throat as quietly as possible.

"So ... we purposed not to," Wallace said. His cape swayed as he mimicked Winona's movement to try and retain the distance between them but she reclaimed it.

"Where is it?"

Wallace reached to the back of his head and pulled the bomb out where it had been woven with its little wires into his hair. He held it out to Winona and she took it.

"What am I supposed to do now? Let you go, because you're my brother?" she said, softly, sharply.

"I am your enemy," Wallace said heavily. "You're one of the killers."

"I'm not," Winona said. "But it's a must."

"No."

"YOU! You of ALL PEOPLE! You gave up your Mainland life for this. You gave up your privileges, and dragged me into it-"

"I didn't drag-"

"You did," Winona said. "Would you have gone on, suddenly left alone, in the dance circuit, overseas without seeing family for weeks? Would you? You forced me. And now you throw it all in my face. Suddenly, oh, the Mainland is our friieeend," Winona said mockingly.

"Yes," Wallace said, "they are."

Winona's chest heaved with the effort of putting fire into words. "I can't believe you. You took my whole future-" she said chokingly. She stepped back. Wallace was still straight as a rod, the cape draped regally from his shoulders. "Even when our parents gave me another chance. And another. I can't even look at that cape. It makes me sick. That flat, faux-innocent face of yours, respect and whatnot for Steven."

"Please-" Wallace half-gasped. His features finally caved and tremored if only for a moment.

She turned back at him with a vengeance. "NO! IT'S DONE! I. Hate. You. My life is this hell and you won't stop me."

"But you love pokemon," Wallace pleaded, "you do, otherwise you would've never been a gym leader, you wouldn't be fighting-"

"I loved dance more! I loved the Mainland more, and I loved Steven more!-and you've kicked and pushed me down to the last thing on the list and I AM STAYING HERE!"

Wallace shook. Winona's fine features were crazed with passion. She shoved the bomb back at him, but he grabbed her and twisted her so her back was to him, in a strong grip.

"Winona, you may not do this, sacrifice so many trainers-"

In a single movement, she had yanked free, spun with her gun in hand and shot in blind emotion.

The shot echoed.

Winoma didn't look to see as Wallace crumpled, just rushed out of the room, barely giving Erick time to slip out before closing the heavy doors with a crashing slam.

...

Maxie had been the one who'd called Winona.

He had gotten the alert from the last Elite.

He had left Drake and his dragons writhing in the throes of defeat. The League; what a childish set of idealistic trainers to aspire to. The old deranged seaman had no worthy virtue, Maxie saw, as he battled in a stale manner, and the Magma leader left him to burn with his flygon and inferior salamence.

If the League was such a toy, why was Maxie challenging it? - because in the octagonal, foreign room of purple metal and uplit wind, stood the man who had attached his identity to the League, and by the Groudon - no, by Maxie himself - there would be nothing left standing of Steven Stone's identity when he was finished.

Because it was the son of Morty Stone who had been following him around in those caverns, long ago now, and had found the remnants of his experiments and called him out and sent him to Mainland prison for 9 years. To come back and find Steven Stone the biggest person in his tiny world - and to have him oppose him - was something that could not go unanswered.

True, Maxie admitted to himself, it was a personal venture. But he needed it. He needed the victory.

...


	76. The League Burns

The words above the door in Steven's battle room said there was another challenger. The Champion had been in his back room, tidying, packing, having a drink to try and make himself relax. He hadn't heard anything from Wallace besides the plan, and it was 6:40, so likely he was already at the Commonhouse.

Steven stood on his side of the platform, the crevasse around it blowing up light and wind. This would be his last battle here. He frowned to himself as echoing loud noises filtered through from somewhere in the Elite rooms, but had no time to respond as the door opened.

And former doctor Landon Maximillian Aurus walked in.

Steven stiffened. Maxie assumed his place between the white lines where the challenger's pokemon would stand.

"Get out," Steven snarled.

"Champion Stone," Maxie said, with the faintest hint of mockery, "I'm here to challenge you."

"No, what are you really here for?" Steven said tightly, containing his anger.

"Just to battle. See who's the best."

"Of course it's about that. How did you get out of prison? How did you get back in Hoenn? How did you get Winona and Juan and Tate and Roxanne all on your side-" Steven's voice rose and he clenched his fists.

"They picked between two alternatives," Maxie stated with a grin on his face.

"And how," Steven said, quieter, heavier, "did you gain the ability to use pokemon attacks? Who gave you the resources? Because you'd have to lie, again, sadistic-"

"Only one pokemon had to die this time. And I had help from the best. Well, that Devon has now, without me."

"What?!" Steven paced forward till he was crossing centerline.

"Professor Cozmo, he was. Oh, but I did accomplish most of the work myself. I'm not lazy."

"You-you bribed Cozmo into it?!-"

"Bribing isn't the least of it," Maxie said offhandedly, "destroying Aqua, using the stones, keeping meddling children out of the way..."

"Destroying Aqua? Is that why we haven't heard anything about them?"

"I don't see why you would be upset over a handful of deaths when they were clearly yet another stumbling block, to both of us-"

"Using the stones? I don't even want to know-" Steven continued, knowing he was losing control- "-and meddling children?" He looked at Maxie. The lunatic. "Meddling children?" he repeated.

"It was a child's pokemon that gave me my success," Maxie said. "And if you knew him, and were willing to use him, well, you might not be facing me now."

"You're a power-driven fool," Steven analyzed, stepping back, "and you'll lose in the end. Someone will shut you down, just like at Devon."

"Well. If you're so confident, why not now?"

Steven didn't grace Maxie with the intro speech, only wordlessly released Skarmory.

But Maxie didn't send out his own pokemon in response to the challenge of the bird which rustled its metallic wings; instead, he said,

"I believe I'm faster," and released a stream of fiery energy at the bird, causing it to screech and faint.

The Champion recalled his pokemon. "You prove nothing by this," he said eventually as he released Claydol.

"Oh, on the contrary, this is to prove that you, Steven Stone, are not the one to shut me down."

Steven tightened his lips as Maxie blasted flames at Claydol, KO'ing the levitating pokemon as well. If Maxie was here what would the Mainland accomplish by blowing up the Commonhouse? Wasn't he the wanted man? This was an opportunity but to Steven there could be no bloodshed under the roof of the League, and not in the battle rooms, and definitely not in the Champion's battle room.

He released Armaldo which Maxie knocked out in one go.

And then Cradily.

And then Aggron.

The huge horned pokemon cried terror echoing throughout the room and fainted as well.

Out of useable pokemon, Steven felt hatred blinding him and he couldn't think straight. He - he - compromise, a weapon, anything- he wasn't really Champion, who was he pretending he was loyal to, what standards was he still clinging to-

Maxie's hands were at his sides, palms up, radiating subdued energy.

"Leave," Steven pronounced in a mixture of fury and incomprehension to his childhood role model.

Maxie shook his head the slightest bit, and with a FOOM flames ignited from his hands and blasted outward in smoking curls, knocking the Champion back against the door to the Hall of Fame. He scrambled back up as Maxie was streaming his fire into the crevasse surrounding the battling platform. Hisses and sparks sounded and more FOOMs as the wind-making jets carried the fire upwards and surrounded the two men, the steep drop filling with a wall of flickering heat.

Lit by the red that suddenly took over the room, reflected in the high ceiling that was now piling smoke downwards, Steven gave Aggron a revive and the enraged pokemon took a bellowing run at Maxie. Its claws left gashes in the smooth platform surface but Maxie unleashed an explosion further and threw the huge metal pokemon to the side, off the edge. It plummeted with an echoing bellow and then crash.

Energy streamed off Maxie's chest and descended on all sides of the platform like a mantle of fire as everything glowed red and orange. Steven could hear his own heart throbbing. All he could think of was what he should've done-

Maxie strode forward and grabbed Steven up by his cravat, and Steven swung at Maxie and knuckles hit jaw. The man with red hair staggered back a step but then lunged again at Steven, his fire singing him. Steven dodged under the grab that followed, inadvertently gazing up at the ceiling that was boiling with flame and smoke. The paneled metal walls shimmered in the heat, hot enough to drip. And then his head was snapping forward as Maxie dragged him up.

The Champion looked into Maxie's eyes, red, and his expression was fierce and Steven didn't understand it, the desire, ambition.

"You'll lose eventually-" Steven managed before Maxie's hand cut him off, hand around his neck. The flames were blue hot as they surged up around him.

"You had your chance to prove that," Maxie snarled. "How is it, seeing your League come down, despised, conquered by everything you tried to stop? You've delayed me ten years, but-"

Steven's eyes went wide as a shot of pain below his ribs and, ancients, it didn't go away, it roared greater and greater and Maxie released him and he couldn't speak, the pain was too much-

"-I have won."

Steven's mouth hung open, the room swirled around the knife in Maxie's other hand. The man had a grim smile on as he blurred into a swirl of long coat and he was gone and Steven's knees hit the floor. Smoke encroached lower and lower; it was too hot and the shock of pain gripped the Champion's mind. His fumbling fingers undid his suit jacket and he gasped at his white shirt now soaking in red.

Some primitive instinct tried to drive him to escape the flames, the fire, but he collapsed.

...

General Ari was as yet unharmed, thanks to Shelley and her crawdaunt. However the TR forces in the Commonhouse had barricaded themselves in the printer/office room and the General was quickly strategizing the best way to break in. Likely they were waiting with a wall of water. But now the Mainland had the advantage of being on the offensive. The General checked the bomb timer flickering in blue light on her visor: 7:45 left on the clock. As long as the Mainland could keep everyone inside until the last second, the plan would succeed.

She headed up half of her forces to locate the other TR leaders and the other League member still stuck inside somewhere - the man with the long blue hair didn't come running, looking to escape, as she had expected. A small detachment she sent after the two others who had gotten away to ensure they arrived safely out.

The General led her troops along the main corridors, checking in each room, until suddenly she held up her hand for a halt.

Loud voices sounded from the oncoming direction.

"Form ranks!" she commanded, and her force held steady, their aim straight, until a flood of reinforcement trainers called from outside the Commonhouse came barrelling down the hall.

...

Sidney and Phoebe ran down the hallways, turning here and there where a trainer idled to avoid further conflict. Before they came to the back exit, Phoebe managing to pant hysterical concerns in between breaths, more trainers flooded in with their pokemon and knocked the two would-be escapees aside.

Sidney pulled Phoebe flat beside a decorative support pillar as a pod of lombre stormed past.

"Is my bomb going to go off? Is it? Isitisitisit," Phoebe half whispered, half shrieked. "Or Wallace's?! Did they find it? His?!" She had lost all track of time in the panic as she clung to Sidney.

"Shhh," Sidney said, and pulled then out from behind the pillar - right smack into a Magma and some pokemon.

"So that's your intention? Bombs?" Courtney demanded as two of her chained mightyena leaped on Sidney and pinned him, struggling, to the ground. Phoebe shrieked. Her reaction was to fling out her two dusknoir, but they had not been trained to physically attack, and another trainer sent out a dustox to deal with them. The buzzing bug pokemon zoned in on the levitating, murmuring Elite pokemon and herded them away. Sidney had given up, arms stretched wide and in the jaws of the mightyena. Courtney stood at his head.

"Where is the bomb?" she repeated to Phoebe.

"There-there isn't-" Phoebe started as Sidney went lax for a moment and then hurled himself up with a yell, throwing the mightyena aside with an arm as he released his own mightyena. The she-wolf was big and bristling and immediately the other two shrunk back in submission. Sidney dragged Phoebe off again. Courtney yelled at her Pokemon to go pursue but they stayed with their tails down by their trainer.

"Go chase them," she told the other trainers with her. "GO!" She herself stayed while they trampled off. She talked into her wrist communicator. "Everyone, there's a bomb, planted by the League."

Crackled "where"s came in her ear. "I'm not sure, if we can find out that would-"

"Did you just say bomb?!" a familiar voice drowned out the others.

"Maxie? Yes-"

"Where?"

"I don't know," Courtney said even as she strode after the troops she had sent running off.

"And who told you and where are they?"

"The two Elite got away-"

"Go get them, do we have the other one?"

"Wallace? Maybe-"

Winona's voice interrupted. "He had a bomb on him. Could there be two?"

A pause.

"Yes, I heard the Elite say something in that direction," Courtney said.

"I'll talk to Wallace," Winona said briskly.

"And what's the Mainland doing in here?!" Maxie continued. "It was supposed to be a covert move..."

Courtney didn't answer his question. "We're heading to the back east exit, the Elite were heading that way." She broke into a jog down the fancy carpeted halls.

...

Wallace, sequestered in the board room, took a moment to think before getting Sealeo to break him out. His right forearm bled, dripping to the floor. It hurt. He didn't know if Phoebe and Sidney would make it out in the crush of TR members, and now more cacophonous noises sounded through the thick wooden doors. It was suddenly like the whole mission fell on him in a shroud of panic and he sent a message to the numbers Steven had given him in case of an emergency. Putting his Nav back in his pocket and whipping the voluminous cape over his shoulder, he released Sealeo, awkwardly with his uninjured arm. A light blue, white freckled seal lubbed around on its fins and girth, a silly expression twitching in its long straight whiskers.

"Sealeo!" Wallace pointed to the door. "Break that down."

"Sea, sea," barked the pokemon, shuffling over to the door and licking it.

"Go on! Throw yourself against it!" Wallace motioned at the barrier. As the seal pokemon was about to give the doors an experimental shove, they opened and hit Sealeo's side, and Winona stumbled in, quickly recovering. She ran to Wallace with a gun in hand, a Mainland gun.

"Where's the OTHER bomb," she said, the muzzle square on his chest. Wallace took a step back.

"I-"

"When is it going off. You would kill everyone? They're just trainers. They're just standing up for what's right," Winona said, her whole body slouching back to rest her weight backwards as she looked at Wallace, head at an angle.

"We could leave now," Wallace said quietly. "Or would you kill-"

"Tell me when the bomb's going off, Wallace," Winona said, voice shaking. "If this is a ruse or not." She flung the gun out to the side for a moment. "You won't sacrifice lives for the greater good again. We've seen that. Or are you still optimistic," she snorted. A jibe at his loss of Sootopolis. She looked straight into him. "It's Steven, isn't it, it's Steven."

"He knows best," Wallace said with a painful edge to the meaning behind his words. The gun barrel twisted into him along with an enraged grunt from his sister. Sealeo had its head lolling on one side, looking confused.

"Damn you," Winona yelled as she gave a final lunge with the gun and sent Wallace sprawling, him giving into her without resistance. "Even if I shot you dead it wouldn't change anything would it, no, and there you are with your arm and like some wounded soldier and everything goes on and you-you're not going to do anything."

"The Mainland will get me out," Wallace said faintly, but Winona was roaring into her wrist communicator for some help in searching for a bomb.

As trainers trampled up stairs to the room, Winona said, "Out of where?"

Wallace said nothing, bleeding, gripping his arm with the other.

She shook her head. "You'll let me die then," she said. The gun stayed level, then dropped. "And you'll die at your own, sad will." Holstering her gun, she left the room.

Much too late after she'd left, Wallace murmured, "This room."

...

Brendan and May watched the Mainland soldiers march quickly past their distanced outpost and soon got the message from Wallace. There was a racket coming from the Commonhouse as the trainers both ran toward it in the ash-filled air, and fire and water burst out the windows and they avoided the pile of half-buried bodies from the Mainland's last attempt at getting in.

The front doors were unlocked as the two dashed up the grand wide steps. Before entering, they paused and May released her gallade and tossed Brendan his ninetales' pokeball. Then the two trainers entered, followed by their Pokemon, aiming to find the League officials and get them out-the second rescue attempt.

...

Salamence, despite its size and power, was a very fast flyer under pressure; so much that it had been excluded from Wing Cup entry allowance, under a constraint of being a reptile and not a bird. However, most trainers knew it was to give other birds that were not swellow a fair chance.

As Maxie hurtled toward Mauville, the wind currents battered him with the choking soot-filled air. He zoned in on the Commonhouse and Salamence plunged through a skylight, sending glass shards flying; Maxie dispelled them with a bursting ring of flame as they landed heavily inside the Commonhouse. Now to take care of this bomb business. Just as he started down the halls, Salamence destroying all the statuettes and edifices adorning the sides of the walkway as it dragged its girth and wide red wings along, a summons from Winona came over his wristpiece to search for the bomb.

"You still don't know anything about it?!" he roared into his wristpiece. A reply started coming back but he cut it off. "I know he's your brother, Winona-"

"It's not-" came over the speaker, but the voice cut herself off, as if debating.

"Where is he?"

"The board room."

Maxie hung a left and Salamence careened around the bend with him, bringing down wall furnishings.

...

The battle between the backup TR forces and the Mainland was pure confusion; the combat filled several rooms and halls, pokemon attacks and gunshrieks everywhere. General Ari defended a pod of her men in a business-artifact-display room, tracts and declarations and ancient blueprints fluttering around and smashed out of their cases, Shelley at her side providing protection. She was fairly sure, as she shot a slug-like pokemon that was spewing fire and splitting bullets, that the opposition knew there was a bomb. As her men surged forward the trainers gave way and ran back out into the hall, the General resumed the lead. They fired after their fleeing enemies, but not for long, as combined water and electric attacks swept at them from behind.

"Protect!" Shelley yelled shrilly at her side. The charged waters electrocuted the soldiers around her, leaving them writhing and calling out, stepping on each other before the trainers came trampling through with their magneton and azurill. The General pulled Shelley back along a wall, mentally cursing her overlords who had dictated the perimeters of this mission to her. Within a couple of days she had gone from satisfied ex-jailmate to a critical higher-up, almost returning to the thinking that would land her back in a prison cell.

But not now. "Ranks," she told the men that were yet able to stand. There were not many. The General turned aside and pressed her earpiece, communicating with the officer heading up the other force. "Jim, you'll want to boot it, there's more headed your way," she informed him.

"We're all to clear out?" the reply came. The General glanced at the timer in the corner of her vision. A little over four minutes. There was something else bothering her; they had seen some of the subordinate opposition leaders, but not the head man with the obscure abilities, and it was he in particular the Mainland was concerned about.

"Yes," she said. Then, facing her men, she urged them out from the way they had been attacked, to merge with Jim'd forces. But she herself stayed behind with Shelley as the men disappeared down the wrecked halls of the political building.

"One last try to find the last League official," she said to Shelley and set off at a run, shoes mechanically helping her balance and give her momentum as she stepped on and around bodies, both pokemon and human.

...

Wallace was in the process of searching the room, halfheartedly, hand clamped around his bleeding arm, when a full-grown salamence blasted through the door and immediately took over the room, roaring, wings slashing and buffeting the rows of senatorial seats. Wallace scrambled back as Sealeo started barking in alarm. The rampaging dragon, however, halted and tilted its maw down toward a man walking in at its side. Maxie strode over to Wallace, took in the arm wound, and caught him up by a fistful of his grey shirt so that his cape hung back limply off his shoulders and piled on the floor. Sealeo came at Maxie with an ice beam but the man didn't flinch, only combatted the icy energy with a flame burst from his free hand. Sealeo fainted.

"The bomb. Now," Maxie said.

Wallace shook his head weakly.

Maxie flipped out his knife and jabbed Wallace's wound with the blunt end. The old gym leader let out a cut off yell of pain.

"Where and when," Maxie said, adjusting his grip. Wallace only hung weakly, not bothering to stand though he could've.

"So far, there aren't any of you worth saving..." the man with long hair trailed, with an extremely irking little laugh. Maxie growled in his throat.

"And you and your friends aren't?"

"They got out," Wallace said, nodding as much as he could with the straining sling Maxie was forcing on his neck, at his Nav on the floor. Maxie kicked it spinning away.

"And you?"

His captive remained motionless.

This kind of person aggravated Maxie infinitely. At least with a coward you could force him; with a brave man you could manipulate him; but with a silent man you could do everything, and nothing, because you didn't know what there was inside him. Maxie disdainfully tossed him back down. "That cape will be your burial cloth, then. It means nothing. The League burns, their members scattered. I think you should have that in mind." Over Maxie's wristpiece came, "We can't get out! ... stuck in..." and "Where are you?" from Winona. "Don't know, a room..." The static clicked off.

"Burns?" Wallace said.

"It and its champion," Maxie said, recalling his dragon and exiting the room, not even bothering to close the door. He didn't like the situation he had just been put in; he couldn't allow himself the time to find out how to get to Wallace, because of the bomb.

Just as he was about to go and meet Winona and get their troops out of there, a shattering and a burst of fire came at his back; he barely had time to force out his own protective shield of flame. It pushed him back against the balcony railing, all the way back out of the board room and across the hall. He collected his wits before summoning water energy and expelling a crystalline wave surging towards his unknown foe.

When the attack had gone over, there was a dripping Brendan standing just inside the board room doors.


	77. The Kid

Sidney had texted Wallace to say they had gotten out and where was he but as soon as he and Phoebe were rushing out of the back exit through the helicarrier and helicopters, Courtney and her sector of the TR were after them. Phoebe was not running at full speed, relying on Sidney's guiding hand and looking back at their pursuers. She couldn't focus on anything.

"Are we gonna make it?!" she was yelling. Sidney pulled her behind the skids of a helicopter as a yell came from behind them along with blasts of water. Sidney was bowled over, letting go of Phoebe's hand as the waters surged around him. He knocked his head on the other skids and got back up and tried to find Phoebe. She was already out from under the belly of the helicopter and he followed, but now the TR was right on their heels.

"W2!" came a yell from behind them, and with another blast of water, the two Elite were sent sprawling. Before either could regain their footing, they were hauled up and braced still by trainers. Their commander, still in the red and charcoal outfit, had two fierce mightyena on heavy chain leash, and the trainers' pokemon helped form a thick half-circle around the Elite.

"Noooo! I can't die!" Phoebe said shrilly, as Sidney fell silent.

"The bomb?" Courtney demanded, pacing forward with the mightyena at her side.

"I put it-"

"Uf!" Courtney interrupted, slammed from behind by a hefty hariyama, its balled fists whirling as it drummed its belly to produce its challenging cry. The ranks of trainers parted as Courtney got back up to face -

- May Birch.

...

While this havoc was going on in Mauville, in Verdanturf the load of evacuees was ready to go. That is, they would've been if General Ari hadn't taken the men out without consulting her higher-ups. This left the remaining politicians juggling duties, figuring out who would be in command, who would stay behind and who would get the General back in line. Currently, as Symmes attempted to call her (without alerting the distal Mainland defence authorities) she wasn't responding at all. Confusion spread aboard the carrier and he heard it outside the door of the luxurious meeting room. Finally he gave up on trying to do it himself and irately called the other subordinate officers until he got through to one. However, it turned out to be the other officer, Jim, in the Commonhouse and attempting to get out.

"Hello? Jim?" Symmes spit into his government-communication enabled phone. Unlike Navs, Mainland smartphones were flat without covers. "You need to

get over to the helicarrier just landed-"

"Hands full," it crackled back, through a lot of background noise, "bomb about-"

"Tell General Ari that I don't care what the hell happens to those pokemon officials, don't bring judgement down on our heads by sacrificing our soldiers," Symmes said.

No reply came. The others in the room jerked into action all of a sudden as the muffled roaring thrum of the second helicarrier landing whirred down.

"We need to load everyone up! Get both ships off the ground! If I tell you now, maybe by the time we're ready you will be!" Symmes tiraded, scrabbling angrily for his candy dish which was just out of reach.

...

Brendan threw himself at Maxie. Maxie didn't want to seriously harm the kid, as his similar abilities made him a person of interest, but he really had no choice. Maxie felt the air charging with energy as he wrestled with the teenager along the balcony rail, and he summoned fire to burst out of his whole body and Brendan staggered back. Maxie steadied his stance in the middle of the hall but Brendan whirled off the rail and sent his own fire unfurling out of his hands. Maxie braced himself and matched the flamethrower with his own fire burst, feeling the energy transfers going out of him and going out of Brendan. As the attacks met halfway Maxie gritted his teeth and unleashed an overpowering wave that made the air resound with the sudden heat and knocked the boy backwards again.

Whoever the child thought he was, Maxie had the legendaries' power on his side and the teenager was going to be easily overcome.

But leave it to an adolescent to recklessly throw himself at odds stacked against him. Staying at a distance, Brendan threw a weak jet of fire at Maxie which he was obliged to put out with a wave of water that went splashing down off the balcony floor, but no sooner had he stopped the attack than a burning raced up his legs and he jumped. The kid was shooting a crackling thunderbolt attack at him through the currents of water around his feet. Snarling in annoyance, Maxie threw up a protective blue shield around him in a globe and pushed it outward so it forced the kid's own attacks against him. Brendan slammed against the rail and Maxie let his protect attack shatter. He was about to head downstairs, but his instinct told him that this was a loose end he'd better not leave that way. As Brendan was running at him again, electric energy writhing along his whole body, Maxie threw up his protective shield, whirling at the last moment. A thick thrumming thump sounded and Brendan staggered back a single step and Maxie grabbed him, flipped him around-

"I'm going to kill you," the kid said, thrashing out of Maxie's grip with a searing ridge of flames leaping from one side of his body. The Magma leader lunged at Brendan's other side with his knife slicing but the boy rolled along the balcony rail to evade it, trying to kick the weapon away. Maxie blocked the hit and scored Brendan's shoulder. The young trainer clapped a hand there, in shock for a moment, and Maxie loosed a burst of flames that shook the inlaid ceiling with heat and sound. As the boy landed on his back, the wrought metal light fixtures came crashing down from along the ceiling and dust filled the air, parts of the stone balcony rail blasted away.

Coughing, Maxie stumbled to the kid who had evaded the falling light fixtures that now lay uselessly on the real wood floor. He rested his dagger heavily just below the kid's sternum, kneeling over him, pinning his legs down. Hot energy shimmered reflexively along Brendan's arms but Maxie stopped that by putting a bit more of his weight on the dagger's point. His victim yelled in pain even as Maxie watched more anger twisting the child's face - because that's all he was, a child - anger he was playing with, invoking.

"Courtney told me your father Norman died from his wounds," Maxie said smoothly. "If you hadn't made such a big fuss over yourself and your oh-so-special starter pokemon, perhaps you and your family could-"

Brendan's left fingers had come in contact with one of the tangled fallen light fixtures and now by a power Maxie didn't know, Brendan raised his arm and the fixture followed it, arcing into the air like it was attached by an invisible pole, and then it was smashing down on Maxie and he desperately released a fire attack as he hunched over. He didn't feel the impact in the numbness of bracing himself, but a moment later he did, realizing he had disintegrated the first fixture into splatters of metal and energy but the boy had chopped another at him. As Maxie turned and dashed back Brendan squatted to touch the third and last fixture and, with a motion like pitching a ball, sent the metal structure curving through the air at Maxie. His back sending pain signals rocketing throughout his body, Maxie couldn't respond quickly enough-his flames burst too late and he crumpled under the crafted copper and shattering glass bulbs.

The next thing he knew he had lost hold of his knife and the kid had it and the kid had dragged him up and was rather enthusiastically driving the edge of the blade into his neck. Maxie twisted to the side and the pressure let up for an instant. Brendan's head turned. Two people were running upstairs. A Mainland general and ... Shelley?

...

"Get back!" May shouted, feeling like her lungs might rip as she faced a couple hundred TR members alone. Hariyama set itself into a heavy stance as she positioned herself between Sidney and Phoebe and the troops; Gallade made slicing motions with its arms and Etz bobbed its reptilian head, making croaking sounds in its throat. The TR hesitated, as did the Elite behind May, but it didn't take Courtney long to order her men to get past the wall of only three pokemon.

"Get out of here!" May said urgently to Phoebe, taking her friend the shoulders, but Sidney was the one who leapt up, saying,

"But you don't go in!" as Hariyama threw itself at a group of forefront trainers advancing, against a machoke and two magcargo.

May backed up as her gallade jumped back, slashing at a trainer with a gun. "But Wallace-"

"Wallace will be fine-" Sidney said as Phoebe panted,

"I saw him fly away!"

May was bumped back by her hariyama as she backpedaled around the helicopter Sidney and Phoebe were using as a protective wall.

Gunshots sounded as Gallade and Etz threw an eager trainer back, the psychic pokemon KO'ing a magcargo with a powerful wave of dark energy. Hariyama forcepalmed the two snarling mightyena on the end of their chain. Sidney and Phoebe were scrambling through the rigid metal legs of the helicopter. These gunshots were different somehow and as May encouraged Etz to fend off a few ninetales aiming to paw at the escaping Elite by the feet, a bullet bounced off the tail of the helicopter which sliced the air above her head. The plastic needle fell softly to the mangled grass underfoot.

May didn't have time to guess at what damage they could do, only looked up just in time to see Hariyama roar in fury and topple over, the near invisible ammonition stuck in its upper shoulder. With a rattle of their chains the two mightyena lunged over Hariyama's unconscious bulk toward May, but their trainer heaved them off that course and sent them snarling at the two Elite. May lunged for Sidney and Phoebe, but as the offensive pokemon beat back Gallade and Etz, Courtney tackled May from behind. The trainer skidded and tried to regain her balance but Courtney slapped chains around May's ankles, effectively ensnaring her gait. As May tried to get up, still yelling encouragement to her pokemon who were throwing leaf blades and psycho cuts left and right, Courtney caged her by yanking her back and grabbing her shoulders. May struggled and kicked.

"Let me-" she panted, as Sidney and Phoebe dashed away and her two pokemon collapsed under a combined flamethrower effort from the TR pokemon. "No!" May screamed, elbowing and struggling madly - she had had some thought earlier of pulling off good fighting moves, because how hard could it be, think of how you want to move and move that way-but in the moment she could hardly think straight.

"Get them!" Courtney yelled, right at May's ear, and Fest and Jock both leapt through the legs of the helicopter and snagged Phoebe. The Elite screamed as she went down, the mightyena ripping at her pant legs.

May was yelling and punching wildly, all her pokemon fainted as Courtney barely managed to hold her. With a kick from her entangled legs she broke free, struggling back up and jerking the chains out of Courtney's hand by jumping back. The admin grabbed her hand in pain, as Sidney was caught between escaping or trying to rescue the freaking out Phoebe as TR members restrained her. May by luck kicked the chains out from around her ankles and grabbed them and made a jump at Phoebe's captors with a yell. She elbowed one over and didn't think before whipping the chains at one trainer, who according yelled as he fell, freeing Phoebe's right arm. May grabbed her and jerked her out of everyone else's grasp, and Sidney was at her side pounding down a trainer and taking a gun out of his hands. Fest and Jock leapt on May from behind even as Phoebe tried to run. Fur and claws smothered May as she twisted. Yells from Sidney filled her ears and as teeth dug into her forearm, she swung the chain so it whacked Fest on its skull. Arms throbbing, she yelled fiercely at the other one which hesitated long enough, seeing its stunned companion, for May to thwack it with her chains as well. She spun, ready, as a blast of fire from another magcargo singed her. Something met the ends of her chains as she flinched, squinting, away from the heat. A gunshriek sounded right by her ear; Sidney as he tried to cover Phoebe's escape. Courtney came at the Elite with the red mohawk and he went all ninja on her. May whirled her chains, paining both her strained arms at a huge machoke which grabbed one of Phoebe's legs like she was a squirming magikarp freshly caught. The metal hit the machoke's legs but it didn't flinch, just turned slowly to its trainer alongside all the others. More flames blasted at May's back and she had no clue where Sidney was. Stumbling lamely towards the machoke and dangling Phoebe, May took out a pokeball from her pack, hesitated with blackened strands of her untied hair whipping her face, and released the gunshot-wounded Tropius.

"Take it with fly!" May yelled at the sauropod, and turned and charged at the horde of magcargo that were still firing away flames. But she pushed right through the slimy pokemon to the ranks of trainers and went left and right with her chains. The sure orders mixed into shouts of pain and confusion, and there was Sidney with Courtney in some kind of headlock, and May looked back at Tropius. The large pokemon's leafy wings, barely smoking, sent blasts of wind in May's face as it gained altitude. The machoke looked at its foe rather stupidly, holding Phoebe just so no one could grab her out of its beefy fist.

"Fly! Fly!" May shouted, dropping her chains as Tropius made a mooing noise, gathering a cone of blue energy as it dove from the air. The magcargo were a thick swamp of resistance about May as the supereffective attack hit the machoke and it dropped Phoebe. May ran with everything her legs had as Phoebe flopped down on the grass just a foot away. Her rescuer lunged. The ranks of the TR surged. Phoebe picked herself up dazedly and her eyes met May's just as she was again reclaimed by other trainers.

The machoke had fainted and Tropius had alighted, now sniffing its victim indifferently.

"Duck!" May heard Sidney yell and she dropped as bullets flew over her head, striking TR members in a surprising display of Sidney's good aim.

Scrambling back up, May barrelled into Phoebe and simply pushed her through the trainers, Sidney at her back, making a protective envoy. But the Elite could only defend them for a moment before he was out of ammo. A mightyena jumped at Phoebe and May got in between and screamed "Run you guys," even as the wolf's yellow eyes and hot breath were in her face, and her back hit the ground. The fight was all around her and she didn't have any more defences and she froze.

...

The woman in fancy armor had a weapons three quarters bow and a quarter gun drawn and loaded in a few seconds as Maxie craned his vision a little worriedly at the stream of blood running from his neck.

"Get off him," she said at Brendan, who retained his position. Through the wreckage of light fixtures fallen on the path between the two pairs of people, Maxie searched Shelley's face for something of interest, but was instead drawn to her lowered hand, which held a pistol tightly.

He cautiously gripped Brendan's knife wrist. He was actually getting very angry now that the kid had the nerve to use his own blade against him. The kid resisted him, their eyes locked in a silent challenge to who would use their firepower first.

The General did. She shot Brendan just below the ribs through a narrow passage between the static throes of light fixtures. Maxie quickly got the steel out of his neck and shoved the child off him. It was only a plastic bullet, perhaps anaesthetic.

Not like he didn't expect the army commander's weapon to triple-click and flick so he was looking right at the shaft of its barrel as he slowly pushed himself up.


	78. What's This, Revenge?

**AN: only 2 more chapters !**

* * *

Prof Birch and Mrs Mayer were summoned onto the helicarrier and they had put up such a resistance that others were allowed to go before them. But now the engines of the hulk of metal were slowly crescendoing into a roar and the pokemon center was nearly empty, and the Prof had been reasoning with the guards for the last twenty minutes for a raincheck on this flight. Mrs Mayer sat in a chair and texted Brendan and May and everyone she knew-where was her son?! Didn't he know that if he didn't get to Verdanturf the family would be split, they would never see each other again?

"Professor Birch," said a new guard who marched in through the hole Brendan had blasted in the sliding glass doors of the Pokemon center, "Go now, or never. We've made an exception for two family units to be combined into one. A temporary exception."

"How much would it cost just to go out and have a look for our kids?" Mrs Mayer said, standing up and drawing close to Prof Birch's side.

"Oh, believe me, we're looking for your kid. Brendan Mayer," he read off his visor. "There have been many casualties. You've been here while people have been hit with tragedy - and decided to still take our help. Follow their example, or get out now." The Mainland officer stepped aside to allow room to exit. Prof Birch put an arm around Mrs Mayer's shoulders, which she shrugged off angrily.

"Miranda, I'm sure they're together-" he started.

"Forget it! I am staying! Who in their right minds would trust you to return Brendan to us?" she said at the officer.

"Never said anything about return-"

"I am a nurse, you think I can't take care of us?!" Mrs Mayer tiraded on. "And with this too." She held an ultraball and shoved it in the Mainland guard's face. "You have no right to take it now." She started to leave, but the officer nodded to the other guards who closed the gap. The main man snatched the pokeball.

"Whoa!" Prof Birch exclaimed, but the officer gave him a hard time as well and demanded his pokemon. "You don't have any authority!" the professor objected.

"Well, go ahead and leave," smirked the officer as his men made no move to let them pass. The secretary was cleaning up her spot.

Mrs Mayer lost it, flailing at the soldiers until they had to restrain her, and Prof Birch told them to take their hands off her, but they had guns, and soon they were being taken towards the thrumming earth-shaking helicarrier, the officer swaggering in front of them.

"We'll just see if your son comes back to you," the officer said, whistling a little in the ash-filled air. The Professor hung just behind Mrs Mayer, who was limp as she barely walked along, sandwiched between soldiers. Surreptitiously he texted a message telling their kids only to return if it was a matter of survival. He hadn't mistaken the offhandedness in the officer's voice. Brendan was a target. The Prof held his Nav tight in his hand as if squeezing it harder would make it ring, tell him that his daughter and Miranda's son were alright, would be so.

...

Just in time Sidney jumped beside May, standing over her, and shoved something into the half-terrified girl's hand - a gun. Realizing what she was supposed to do with it, she got up to see Sidney holding the Magma admin at bay with his own filched weapon.

"Yeah! We know where the bomb is! We know when it's going off!" Sidney was yelling, standing like he was braced for impact. May heard growling from behind her and pivoted so she was back to back with the Elite, and pointing her gun at Fest and Jock. Phoebe had gotten away. The wolves looked at May with undaunted yellow gazes as the TR slowly shuffled in a ring around her and Sidney.

...

For a moment Courtney wavered, and realized the Elite member was only serving empty threats. Communications came to life over her headset-they were still trapped in, the other TR group, that is the Mainland soldiers were still outside the room in the Commonhouse.

"They'll get out, surely," Courtney said, glancing back at the appropriately off-white dome of the Commonhouse. "They won't stick around-"

Noises of confusion came, and then an affirmative blabber. Courtney cut the call and nodded sharply to the Trainers grouped around her. She refocused on the Elite.

...

May had reached a hand into her bag, which had fallen into the crook of her elbow. Besides the panting mightyena, the trainers now surrounding her watched her closely. She stopped before revealing Glalie's pokeball, hand still in the bag. She was acutely aware of Sidney tense at her back.

"Move," the Magma admin said from behind, and May released Glalie because she didn't know what was happening. The ice type immediately stopped Fest and Jock from clawing into May with a strong blizzard attack, sending snow crystals flying everywhere, as Sidney's support lurched away from her and back into her with the shriek of a gun, but then he was scrambling away. May gripped her trigger hard and somehow came to a kneeling position as the ranks of trainers blurred into motion around her. There was Courtney, unhurt and following Sidney with her eyes, but then looking at May. Trainers ran wildly away from the Commonhouse around them. May wondered what Courtney would do. May wondered what she herself would do. But the admin didn't produce any real reaction in May, tempt any instinct for violence, and she couldn't think straight now. Everything was moving too slowly.

Then Courtney broke gazes and was dashing after her men-or Sidney, Sidney and Phoebe, now May brought the gun up-but Glalie blocked her shot, hummingly levitating above Fest and Jock's unconscious forms. More trainers pounded by along with their pokemon and May edged sideways on her knees and shot the gun. It was a rather pointless shot. It hit the side of a helicopter.

Then-

...

Before this, just before, General Ari was striding toward Maxie as he rose. Shelley kept pace just behind.

"You wouldn't try to shoot me," Maxie guffawed at the female captain.

She kept coming. Maxie realized she meant business, and he released a quick and potent bolt of flame that scorched whatever load and lock chamber her bowgun was outfitted with. It didn't explode, but rather let off trails of smoke, and the visored woman slung it back around her shoulder into its resting position. She was in the process of pulling out a gun when Shelley was quietly releasing her mightyena.

"Get her!" Shelley sic'd her two pokemon on the General and turned and held her arm straight, shot Maxie as the wolf tore at the General's visor and helmet and Crawdaunt grabbed her booted legs in its heavy pincers.

Maxie surrounded himself in a burst of flame, but after the pop of the bullet disintegrating, Shelley was still coming and Maxie flattened himself to let the next bullet whiz by overhead. He jumped up, swiped his knife off the floor, and hopped agilely over twisted arms of light fixtures as two more gunshrieks sounded, one bullet grazing his shoulder.

Then he grabbed Shelley, twisted the gun out of her grip and got his own fingers around her neck.

"What's this? Revenge?" he said over the noise of the former Aqua's pokemon attacking the General.

"You bast-" Shelley choked, scrabbling at his hold.

Maxie realized in a corner of his mind that he was drawing this out - did he actually have any care for this pitiful woman - hardly a woman, a girl - who had practically coerced herself into his hands? Swifter than he'd thought he would, he gashed her neck and flung her body aside as blood went flying, splattered on his jaw and jacket. She writhed, screaming, for only a second or two, and then lay limp among the cage of the light fixture wreckage.

Maxie felt reassured. Justified somehow. He felt better. The same sort of feeling that came with bringing Steven Stone down.

The minute Shelley ceased to be, her pokemon laid off the General, who was about to overcome them anyway. She stood, gun up warily in a hand, helmet on the floor, one boot flapping open showing scoring marks of teeth.

Maxie could see her face now.

He had no control over the surprise that commanded him, immobilizing for a few long seconds. She reacted to the look on his face and saw him too and the gun dipped. He watched her full long lips part, and then her gaze go to Shelley's corpse and her gun lift. Her eyes narrowed.

"You've changed," she said.

"I suppose you think for the worse."

"Don't fool with me, Lan-"

"Ariana," he said.

...

In that moment, struck by the brutality of this stranger, and then the shock that he was no stranger, and then hearing her name fall from his lips - in that moment she felt unworthy of her position. It was everything she'd had before. Landon's open, ahhing pronunciation of her name took her back. Air-ee-yah-nah. She wanted nothing but him to be with her. To love her.

Had she closed her eyes? Yes, just a long blink, a private flashback. She opened them again.

"What," she said, but it came out hoarse, "Are you doing?"

"We're on opposite teams. I can't tell you," Landon said. Ari still ran over his face with her eyes. She hadn't seen him up close like this before. He had aged. Sure. But there was still the charm, the tilting, misleading good looks...

Her gun burst in a flash of heat and smoke in her hands. It reminded her that the bomb would go off in less than a minute, even as Maxie took her hand and pulled her stumbling closer. His other hand roughly took her chin in his hands and turned her head toward him, and his fingers traced her cheek. She had no words, she was incapacitated. She needed to get that young trainer out. She needed to keep Maxie in. Landon in. Did she want to blow up Landon? Of course. No. When she'd left Hoenn, it had been because she'd realized he had no capabilities of long-term commitment. He was a cheater and a crook. And look how much farther that had developed. But did she want to kill the beautiful dark eyes and the soft sure feeling she got when she was close like this, real and better than what she'd settled for in Johto...

Yes. Yes, she did. But he had her. His knife dug in between the ridged jointed plating along her side.

"I don't think I still love you. I thought maybe I would," the man said very softly as his fingertips against her chin began to warm and he dropped his knife with a clatter; all of a sudden his limbs ran flame along them and the heat was searing into her side-

The kid, Brendan, had somehow regained consciousness and hit Landon in the back hard with bolts of electricity. Ari scrambled back as the whole area seemed to grow dark but for the boy pouring energy out of himself, lighting up like the best entertainment halls in the Mainland. Arcs of burning lightning crackled and seared and tore the air as they coursed through Landon.

When the spectacle was over and the boy bent over, supporting himself on his knees, the General knew she had 58 seconds to get out. The mightyena was whimpering beside its dead trainer. Ari hoped her troops were already safe outside. She looked down at Maxie's swaying, smoking, kneeling form, into his glazed eyes.

He should die crawling with fear on the inside. Guilt, and if he was not capable of guilt, then panic, then unresolved ends he could never finish.

"It was your son," she spit at him, and then grabbed Brendan by the arm and was tearing downstairs as fast as she could go.

...

There was daylight ahead, as Ari met with a block of fleeing TR members. Her own troops were ahead and outside, for the most part, but they couldn't make it through this press of trainers and pokemon-

Brendan, who she still had in a deathgrip by the one arm, took a couple strides to run beside her and flung a barrier of flames in front of them, out through his palms. They ran as trainers evaded the heat. The teenager's fire attack was softer, more billowy and thick somehow... They still weren't going to get out in time, the General knew as they went past the coatroom and the exit was a right turn ahead.

The bomb went off.

...

Now, the ranged weapons technological advancement, the better firepower that made gun chambers glow with stored energy and made them shriek when they were fired, had been also applied to bombs. Brendan suddenly had no one and nothing holding to him; his mind was still a bit foggy from the shot and he was lifted, flung off his feet by the force of the blast from higher up in the boardroom. The whitish wall of the hallway blew outwards in fragments and chunks of gyprock. Brendan's ears were gutted by the boom of the heat and the screams of the people around him as they flew like confetti. His back hit something and he grunted and fell to solid ground, and things fell on top of him as his hearing was completely shocked into unresponse. A shrill blank noise cut through his head and he clapped his hands to his ears but it wouldn't stop. Something smothering fell on him from above, and then a couple other heavy impacts, and then it was still.

...

Then, the bomb went off. The blast was from the boardroom, which was close to the back of the building and blew out the architectured dome so that pieces came raining down on the field with the helicopters, and fleeing trainers, and May.

Whack, blurs of grass and helicopters and people. Her world shook and went black.

...

Wallace gripped Swell's headcrest tightly. It was faster than any bird he had flown. It whipped through the air above the Sea of Hoenn and Wallace's face was off-colour, and he didn't look down at the glittering sea below. The mocking sea that had always been a friend and then had turned on him, swallowing Sootopolis, swallowing his people.

...

The General jabbed upward, broke through rubble. Levering herself up on bodies, she coughed and wiped dust from her hair and face. She had lost Brendan. She stood on a heap of tangled wreckage with half-standing walls around her. Climbing a few paces further, cries for help and moans in her ears, she saw she was directly at the top of the smooth, grand stairs. Though some bodies and debris were flung on the steps, a huddle of black-garbed soldiers was fleeing across the lawn, and a significantly lesser number of trainers ran whatever direction away from the bombed building. The General glanced behind her into the Commonhouse, the roof of which which was crumbling to let in the gray sky; most of the the trainers and their pokemon were dead or buried or both.

She reached for her ear but realized her comm had been torn out with her helmet, so she went down the stairs at a jog, her weapon still hanging on her back.

...

Brendan had fought out of the collapsed coat room and from under several heavy Mainland-made garments before the General, and the first thing that he thought of was May. He stumbled down the stairs, coughing, and around the side of the building; he'd lost his Nav. The wreckage was worse in the back, mounds of the broken dome and blasted walls and furniture and helicopters and bodies, human and pokemon. Trails of smoke issued up as he began to make his way through the destruction, trying not to look at the carnage. He bypassed struggling people, still alive but trapped, without really feeling anything.

"May... May," he called, and he had to make his vocal cords exert themselves like he was weightlifting. "May!" He looked out and around, beyond the bomb blast's radius, but he couldn't see her. Anyway, she would be jumping and waving at him if she were already out and safe.

The realization of killing Maxie didn't even enter his mind. Panic struck hard into his sluggish veins, more with every step. And his dad and her mom. Where were they?

He felt like he was going to pass out again. Whatever he had been shot with, it was still working through him.

He had to stop, leaning on a broken leg of a large chest of drawers, standing on what he wasn't aware of; a dead machoke.

Tired. Tired of this. Sure, he had stopped evading his responsibilities, the outcomes of everything he caused, but if in the end he still was powerless to change it-what did it matter? May had talked him up so much, but he wasn't a damn hero. He didn't feel like anything. Death, death all around him.

"MAAAAAAAY!" he screamed. As if he wanted an answer to his unspoken, inarticulable questions.

Then by some chance, some miracle even - perhaps the Surus did have a legitimate reason to erect altars to Jirachi, the Wish-Maker - he saw the edge of a familiar green bag snagged on the end of a smashed helicopter tail, a glinting ring of seven gym badges dangling from the strap.

...

...


	79. Fervor

**AN: Don't read the second to last chapter if... Never mind.**

* * *

It had been only an hour and at the frightening speed of Brendan's swellow the League was already in Wallace's sight.

He landed and stumbled, fell with his legs trembling. Eventually he got back up and gave the swellow a few pats, he caught his cape in one arm, he walked towards the fallen Hoenn crest and the League entrance. The building stood on a cliff, on a precipice in the midst of the sea. Swell just stood there. Wallace didn't have a pokeball for it.

Steven hadn't responded to any of Wallace's texts. The former gym leader walked into the silent building. He walked through the four battle rooms. When he reached Drake's room, the stage constructed like the others as a raised platform, but above an architecture of spikes, he was met with the bloody sight of a salamence mauled and lying lifeless on the white center line. It had great gashes and scrapes all over it, but its own maw was stained with another's blood. Wallace looked down to the spikes below, and turned away. Drake lay down there, still, dead. A melodic chirping sounded-in the angled steel beams of the roof roosted an altaria. It chirped again and sang a few notes, ruffling its cloudy white wings. Wallace keyed in the code on the floor panel with his foot as if he had just beaten Drake. His white shoe came away stained with the Salamence's blood.

He continued up the long hall to the Champion's room. The lights along the path still flashed.

When he entered, the walls-the walls looked like they had melted and hardened like wax on a candle. Wind and light still rose from the dropoff around the octagonal battle platform, but an acrid smell filled the air. Rattled pokemon moaning sounded from below and Wallace didn't look down. There were five pokeballs left lying on the platform as Wallace walked across the surreal scene, the dripped walls gleaming in a congealed way, not like they were steel. Blackened infrastructure showed behind the larger melted collapses.

The door to the Hall of Fame was open. Something was wrong. Wallace quickened his step through into the dim room with the mirrored floor, walls and ceiling; the register bed at the end shone its reassuring lights. There was someone in the room. Something. Skarmory looked up with a metallic rustle and cawed at the newcomer. Everything was a blur to Wallace until he reached the object of Skarmory's vigil.

Steven, his black suit jacket shrugged off, his white shirt all wet with red. Chest going up and down, up down up down. Wallace bent over. Hung for a moment.

"Good to see you..." Steven trailed in a strange cadence. Wallace jerked back up and ran out this time, ran.

...

Steven was vaguely aware that someone had come. And left. He began to wonder if it had really been Wallace, and if anyone had been there at all, but they returned. It was Wallace; in the dim light, by his long light blue hair. He had a plastic case of first aid things. Steven tried to muster the energy to unbutton his own shirt but his friend brushed his hands away and did it, exposed the wound - at least that was what Steven could feel most intensely. It overrode the burns obvious to his friend's gaze.

"He got me...Maxie you know... Shoulda had a gun, there wasn't, ha..." Steven trailed. "The Mainland...wait, yes, where I sent you, that was-" Steven suddenly let out a yell as Wallace out something excruciating on open wounds. He gasped in a breath and Wallace applied whatever it was again, drawing another howl out of Steven. With the surge of adrenaline he pushed himself up against the trainer bed, but a glass of alcohol was promptly shoved into his shaking hands and he was obliged to gulp it all. He let Wallace push him around and bandage him. He banged his empty glass on the mirrored floor, rimming its bottom in his own blood. Wallace gave him a refill and Steven swallowed it all. He moved onto pushing Steven's pantleg up and doing the same painful application.

Between yells, Steven protested he wasn't hurt there at all, and Wallace was just trying to maim him permanently.

"Done?" Steven exhaled weakly as Wallace backed away.

"I'll call the Mainland. They'll get you." The glow of the other man's Nav illuminated the dim space further and Steven took notice of the clash of red against teal on his arm.

"You! You too..." Steven exclaimed. He felt better now. Somehow he still didn't have the faculties to stand, or even sit straight.

But Wallace was speaking urgently on his Nav. Steve didn't lay any attention, only murmured, "Your arm... Who got you? Who got you?" His wound throbbed intensely once every few seconds. That was a good bottle of port Wallace had fetched him.

"They're coming, hold on," Wallace said tensely.

"Who shot you? Knife, maybe? Gun...?" Steven continued hazily.

"Just Winona." Wallace looked aside.

Steven blinked. "Why?"

"The bomb was installed, but it was that trainer Brendan who got me out of there. I didn't stay to see what happened. I haven't received any notification." Wallace ignored his friend's question. "Look, Steven, please try to focus."

"I am focused," Steven objected irately. He pushed himself up, yelled, chomped his lip, and relaxed, huffing for breath.

"They'll not return you to Hoenn," Wallace said. "Is there something you need me to do? Quickly, before they come."

"I can do it," Steven argued.

"No," Wallace said in a half-demeaning, half-apprehensive tone.

"Fine," Steven said, coughing, tasting blood. He reached for the masterball he had cradled into the Hall of Fame while the flames were still raging. "This goes to Cynthia. Cynthia. Sinnoh... Cyn..."

Wallace took it. Steven fell back into a haze. When he startled back into present consciousness, Wallace was gone. Seconds passed. Skarmory was still there beside its trainer. "Wallace... Wallace..." Steven said, saying each repetition in a different tone. Ancients, that hurt. Everything in there. On there. His leg too. Maybe Wallace did have a point. "Wallace?...Wallace! Oh ancients..." He bit his lip and challenged himself to keep doing so until Wallace returned.

"It should be in transfer," Wallace said. "There's a lot of protocol with masterballs."

"Mmmmmyyyyuhhh," Steven said. He held his glass toward Wallace as he took a seat beside the Champion. Wallace nearly emptied the bottle into his glass and then, to Steven's foggy surprise, the former gym leader eagerly downed the remainder himself.

Steven felt himself sweating. He knew he was weak. Suddenly it snapped into him that this was happening, ancients, he was sitting in his own Hall of Fame, out of work, bleeding to death-

"So why did Winona shoot you?" he asked Wallace. He focused on his friend, who was lacking his white hat, hair loose.

"We were on opposite teams," Wallace said.

"She's not a beast like that," Steven said. "She wouldn't just shoot."

"I didn't think so," Wallace said. It came out like a wisp.

"I should bandage it!"

"No!" Wallace clapped a hand to the wound. Pain flashed across his face. "The Mainland's coming."

Steven diverted his focus to breathing for a moment as raw pain attacked him. When his mind hacked through the pain again Wallace was speaking.

"It's just she hates me. She blames me. Well, I did do it-I am, I tried but-Mum and Dad wanted to marry her off to give her a better life, but no because I liked him more than she did, and she did like you Steven she just cut it off, I - I swear she loved you-."

He resumed speaking after a moment.

"Now that I've failed it's worse, because I should have won, done it, accomplished something because I refused to on Mum and Dad's terms, so-so-at least I could've made something of this and I tried -" Wallace had his hands in front of him. "I tried .. so hard. So hard, Steven."

"To win," Steven said distantly.

"I did win though. But I wish we weren't both playing the same game." Wallace's voice broke. "Every time."

"So she didn't get to live in the Mainland. It's done, over... She's stuck here... Guns won't change that," Steven mused.

"She thought maybe they could change me."

Steven gave Wallace a weak arched eyebrow. "Why change you?"

His friend turned his body and leaned toward him. The Champion put his weight back in his supporting arms, and Wallace put his hands on the Champion's own, leaning forward. Steven felt hair brush his face and Wallace kissing him.

Playing the same game. Him?

...

"MAY!" Brendan was almost shrieking, arms like slow motion windmills as he channeled energy through touching a chunk of debris and then letting it go as he flung it away, the other arm already seeking to remove another barrier between him and May.

He uncovered her slowly, the thunking of his thrown objects stampeding in his ears as he kept on, through rock and limestone and marble and steel beams and furniture and pokemon and even another body.

When he reached her he almost shredded his back jumping down beside a part of pillar down to where she lay awkwardly, one leg pinned.

His fingers went frantically to her neck. Oh, thank Arceus. A pulse. But she was still. There were rashy wounds on her face and the leg didn't look too good.

He had to use the scant remainders of his focus to raise and fling away, as slowly as he could, the beam pinning May's leg. Below it her bare skin was already bruised and black lines ran across her shin. Brendan winced in spite of himself. He tried to get a solid grip under her, and when he did, he tried to lift her and was rewarded with a short scream. He dropped her unintentionally as she pushed herself up on her elbows in the tight space, eyes wide.

"What-Owwwww!" she yelled through gritted teeth, putting her hands on her shin.

"That won't help!" Brendan said. "Lie back!"

"Owwww, Mewtwo Mewtwo Mewtwo," May continued, eyes squinched shut and tears going out from the corners. Brendan hefted her up and she screamed again, her leg dangling. Brendan had to shut his ears and focus on staggering up into daylight. Somehow he did it.

Mainland soldiers waited for him, in a ring around him. The General was there. The one who had shot him.

Two soldiers at her side followed her earlier lead. Plastic needles sticking out of his neck, Brendan dropped to his knees and let May roll as gently as he could out of his hold, and then he blacked out.

...

Wallace's lips left his. Steven looked at him. He had the illusion of straight thinking in the moment; but feeling? A cocktail of agony pounded at the Champion and confusion and adrenaline. Hiding things, glossing them over, emphasizing and ignoring in turn - it was his job description.

But he wasn't the Hoenn Champion. Didn't have a job now.

Hard truth to swallow.

He put his lips on Wallace's and found where they fit. He relaxed, Wallace's hands under his back, and he put his own hands in long hair, strands tangled and smooth. Ancients. He loved Wallace from as deep as he had been shot in that moment. Teeth. Mouth. The back of his neck. Wallace kissed him back with more strength than he had and Steven let him, felt hands and fingers moving against his skin in the intensely soft way that Wallace was. Intensely soft.

Everything about him; but to Steven it was all in his tongue and lips, and pounding, a painful antonym in Steven's own heart.

When they broke, it was Wallace who broke it. Steven was in terrible pain and he slumped even as Wallace disentangled his long legs from Steven's. There was a real thrumming in Steven's ears, loud like a helicopter.

"She loved you more," Wallace said.

"What if I loved you more," Steven said with a weightlessness in his gut.

Wallace was fixed to the spot for a time longer than it seemed, and then there were a whole bunch of people marching in the door and rushing to Steven's side with white medical stuff. They blocked his view of Wallace. Let me die, but still have him. Suddenly his mind was thrown into panic that his body couldn't respond to.

It was with relief that the Champion felt his heart slowing and gave up, let his senses all fall away into deep sleeping unconsciousness.

...

"What are you doing?! Stop!" May yelled, screamed, at the Mainland soldiers who scooped up Brendan between two of them as she lay there helpless. Her leg hurt like nothing she had ever felt before. The General with the orange stripe across her armor sent her men off, but as her eyes met May's, she stayed another two soldiers with the injured girl as she herself left.

"No! No! They can't take him!" May went on, the pain adding fervor to her cries. The soldiers were rigging some sort of stretcher. She had lost her Nav and bag. Her mind began to swim, the pain relentless.


	80. The World Beyond

Mrs Mayer and Prof Birch were in the same room that the Elite had waited in. Nice, but hardly a comfort. They sat on opposite ends of the table; the door was open, but soldiers guarded the entrance. Nevertheless, Prof Birch picked up on the fact that evacuation was being carried out all over Hoenn. For several minutes the deafening thrum of the Surus' helicarrier taking off permeated the soundscape.

He sat and listened to Miranda's listless silence as she stared endlessly out the window.

Finally a battered-looking female general, with a pretty chin and almond-shaped eyes walked in briskly.

"Come," she said as the two guards entered with her, escorting the two faux-guests out, down the helicarrier ladder to where a small group of soldiers waited. "Is this your-"

"Brendan!" Mrs Mayer choked as she dashed towards the limp body slung between two of the armed men. "What did you do?!" she shrieked at the General in a mother's fury after checking for a pulse. She ran at the General and pounded on the other woman's armour, fragments of questions and threats spitting from her lips. A couple of guards quickly moved to restrain her. The professor lost his patience as he took Mrs Mayer's place.

"Where's my daughter? Was there a girl with him?"

It took three soldiers to drag the professor away from the General. He threw one off him but there were too many to fight against.

"You will relocate to Rustoboro where you will be transported to Sinnoh on the next helicarrier," a guard told the two adults as the female General led her men, carrying Brendan, up the ladder they had just descended. Mrs Mayer was hysterical as Brendan and his human stretcher were engulfed by the small port in the side of the hulking aerial transport machine.

Then the officers turned the parents around and marched them into Verdanturf.

Prof Birch grabbed Mrs Mayer as she was struggling to take in the situation, mainly because he just needed to stick with someone who was on his side.

"You can't do this!" he bellowed as he threw himself at the guards around them, trying to make for the helicarrier. "We won't go!" A gun was promptly put in the Professor's face. When he smacked it away, it was turned on Mrs Mayer.

They were put in the Pokemon center, again under guard. Mrs Mayer was completely inconsolable; but Prof Birch could be sure now that May was still out there. He sent her text after text. Yes, he was concerned for Brendan, but like it or not, he was stuck with the Mainland, whereas May's fate was unknown.

He hadn't expected the father-daughter chasm to be dug not by teen girl issues, but instead by his own worry that he hadn't prepared her enough for whatever lay ahead.

...

The Mainland soldiers quickly got the Hoenn Champion on a fancy white stretcher and wheeled him out. Two accompanied Wallace as he was obliged to follow as well. Skarmory the Mainlanders left without a thought.

They reached the foyer. Wallace's guards stopped as Steven's retinue exited to the waiting helicopter.

Wallace rocked, body set off-balance, with a jolt as the doors slid shut again.

Steven was gone.

"I'll need your trainer card," one guard said to him.

He took it and gave it. The man walked to the medicine counter and scanned the card. He walked back to Wallace.

"We'll need your six pokemon before you're clear to go to the Mainland."

Wallace ducked back into Sidney's battle room and handed over five pokeballs. The officer left his hand outstretched; slowly Wallace withdrew Milotic's pokeball from a pocket in his slacks.

He held the shiny orb just over the waiting grasp of the soldier, staring at the unmoving, impatient face. Eventually the soldier snorted and yanked the pokeball from the former gym leader.

"Follow us," he said and started out. There were two helicopters; at least there had been, the one carrying Steven was taking off now. Wallace stopped at a safe distance along with the guards and let his hair lash his face as the chopper rose with effort, blades going. It wasn't as loud as a helicarrier, but they were close to it.

Wallace wordlessly turned as the skids of the chopper left the ground. He walked around the side of the League; it was a long building. A narrow trail of grass was his path, and at the back of the building it opened into a small green space. Like all League buildings, this was built on a precipice, waves heaving against the cliff face far below.

"Hey!" Yells came from behind Wallace, but he kept walking with his slightly stilted gait as he undid the clasp that held the white Champion's cape around his shoulders. It billowed to a heap on the grass as Wallace walked free and thin with his hair like a vivid memory of the now ash-filled air-walked off the edge.

The two soldiers looked over the edge, made an electronic log, and jogged back to where their vehicle waited. One less worry.

...

"We'll make it," Prof Birch told Mrs Mayer as they were out in various modes of transport over the next few days. "They'll make it." Mrs Mayer barely spoke. The Professor continued to reassure her. "The Mainland wouldn't hurt Brendan. He's probably going somewhere better than we are."

When they arrived in Sinnoh, to the fresh, clean air and the newer-looking buildings, fancier, flowers out front, laughing families, everything in order and no demolished buildings - it was hard to imagine a place better.

...

May woke in a dark space. Her leg still hurt. It was a hut, a nice hut, wood and woven materials everywhere. At least her leg was bandaged and splinted, but who had taken her - where was Brendan? She jerked to get up but then remembered her leg.

Tentatively, she called out. "Hello?... Hello, I'm awake..."

Soon enough a girl burst in. Phoebe. May couldn't stop her questions from running out of her. Brendan? How long had it been? Where? And how?

Phoebe worked on replacing the poultice and bandage on May's leg, causing May to wince squeamishly several times during her answering speech. "I came back to try and find Sidney once all the Mainland soldiers up and left. They left; the TR came after them and Maxie completely just burnt everything out. There are helicarriers everywhere else, already they went to Rustoboro and everything west of there. Anyways, I don't know where Sidney is, but I found your bag and your pokemon. There were a couple helicopters left by the hospital so I snuck around; I found you in a room and heard some Mainland guys talking about using you to convince Brendan Mayer. I think they took him, May."

"Where?!"

"Maybe, probably well the Mainland." Phoebe swallowed. May's spirits fell. "Well, I wasn't going to let them use you as leverage. So I used your pokemon and they rescued you. It's been-" Phoebe's expression scrunched up, "-two and a half days. We're in my granma's, south of Fortree in the wilds. I'm hoping to hustle us onto the next helicarrier." May saw Phoebe looked unsure about the possibility of that happening. But her heart was racing, so occupied she didn't feel the pain of a fresh poultice.

"Why'd they take Brendan?" she thought out loud.

"I don't-"

"But Maxie! They left because he was too strong, right?"

"Well, yeah looked like it."

May clapped her hand over her mouth. "They know they can't win without Brendan, freaking Mainlanders, he's the only one who can fight Maxie-!"

Phoebe pushed her back down. "Your leg is probably fractured."

"Don't you see, we have to-"

"Thanks for saving me, May. Back at the Commonhouse, the explosion-friends do that for friends. And you're not going to go and give yourself a permanent dummy leg now."

"At least use my pokemon," May continued, angry at the situation and trying not to direct it at Phoebe, "find Sidney or something."

"Ok. Thanks. I'll tell you if we can back us into a flight. My granma might check on you, ok?" Phoebe put a mug of some thick drink at May's elbow pointedly.

May looked at it and then let herself flop down completely. Then she sat back up. She was so used to having her dad around, always there for her even when he was doing fieldwork- "My dad!"

"Oh right!" Phoebe gasped. "All the helicarriers left. He went too, with a Miranda. He texted you." Phoebe took May's Nav out of her skirt pocket and put it within her reach.

"To Sinnoh," May said sadly as she read the texts. She frowned. "I don't know why the Mainland would force them to leave, I mean..."

"Well, at least he's alright," Phoebe offered.

May sighed at the ceiling as the Elite left the room. She forced back tears. No reason to cry. Dad was fine. Why would she cry over that?

She was the one who felt useless now. She was rather ashamed of how much of a go-getter she'd been, convincing Brendan to stick his nose in TR business along with her - no, she couldn't legitimately throw this all on her. Alone, they both might not have made it.

Whoever's fault it was, a group of three plus one missing was no comfort in an effort to rescue one kid in the clutches of the all-powerful Mainland.

...

Now that they had the kid, the Mainland was leaving the region for safety reasons. The General sat in copilot position in the helicarrier's command deck, at which three main pilots controlled communications, navigation, and power distribution. She was slightly behind them, a tablet in hand, reviewing everything that had happened. She wouldn't admit it but she was slightly shellshocked, more than everyone else. The ranks of soldiers and politicians alike ran with a live, abrupt unsurety-and it came from the very real fact that they had been bested by the power of pokemon.

Slightly more shellshocked. She was holding a light conversation with Pro in one ear. He always liked to hear it first. Promised it was all safe and secret till she came back but she knew she was his source of popularity; no matter. Or did it matter? This, and the weakness Landon had exposed in her. Maybe since her husband - the only man she'd ever officially wed, and in Johto-was locked up under a life sentence for being head of a crime ring two times around and exploiting the pokemon market, she had been starved for male attention. Or maybe she just liked the power-hungry daredevil type and she was never going to escape it.

But knowing she had just been a key instrument in killing Silver's real father - not the functional one her husband had been - no. She couldn't absorb that, take it in. Shellshocked. She would probably die with the secret of Silver's parentage.

Snap it, she told herself. You've succeeded. The mission was successful. True, you didn't blow out the whole region, but the teenager recovered will be the key to retaking... No, no, to dominating the uprising, with as little loss as possible... A single FFT bomb was enough to scare the resistance out of our building... Yeah, that sounds better ...

Brendan Mayer from Littleroot, Hoenn region, would wake up soon in a world far beyond his own.

* * *

**THE END**

**or not. Haha, well there it is. What did you think? Tell me!**

**and yes I have a whole story for the Pokemon universe in my head. This is just a part of it and I seriously had doubt I'd make it to even 80K but here we are. **

**i could write the sequel if I get 25 people interested. What does the sequel have? MUHWAHWHAHWHA it has more of Riley, Cynthia, and a lot of extra stuff too. And... FFT bomb stands for Fusion Flare technology**

** take a guess**

** I might change the title. It's kinda boring. Any suggestions?**


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